


The Splitting

by Shushunt_Mew



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bad Puns, Betrayal, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fights, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friendship, Genocide, Grief, Loss, Love, M/M, Nightmares, Pain, Romance, Sign Language, Skeletons, Smut, Timelines, human magic, monster magic, pacifist, partners in crime, reset
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-31 10:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 32,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6467026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shushunt_Mew/pseuds/Shushunt_Mew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frisk resets the timeline in order to experience her (yes, she is female in this story) whole adventure all over again. Chara ends up gaining control, causing the genocide route. Frisk fights for the control back and resets the time line one more time to set things right. However, something doesn't seem quite right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea for a story and thought it'd be a great way to get over my writers block!  
> Here is the link to my tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/shushunt-mew  
> Please credit me for any inspiration of art works etc.  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the prologue for the undertale fanfic I am writing. I have quite a few ideas for this story too, so I am not sure how many chapters there will be in the end. Enjoy!

Frisk grins like a maniac as her knife finally slashes through Sans’s coat, shirt and his ribs. She watches him victoriously as he mumbles something about going to Grillby’s. Her soul thrums loudly when she hears him mention Papyrus. The real Frisk is trying to break out, to save Sans despite it clearly being too late for the 1HP skeleton monster. Frisk’s smile widens at hearing the real Frisk’s thoughts echoing in her mind.

_Stop this! I don’t want this!_

But it’s no use. Chara has fully taken over Frisk’s body and intends to keep it that way. Chara laughs at Frisk's futile attempt and wipes the knife on Frisk’s oversized blue and purple jumper which is already covered in monster dust from the journey, her red eyes dart to look at Sans who has now collapsed and is turning into dust. Only his jacket and Papyrus’ scarf are left behind. Chara makes her way through the rest of Judgement Hall, passing all the cracks in the marble where she had been thrown during the battle against Sans as well as all the slices in the wall tapestry where her knife had landed when she missed Sans time and time again. Heading into the castle, she is faced by the king, Asgore. She easily cuts him down without a single word, not even giving him a chance to fight or say a single word, still smiling that murderous smile which seems to never leave her face. Frisk is struggling to break loose from Chara’s hold over her but again, it is no use. Flowey pops up, clearly happy to see Chara but to Frisk’s horror she even kills him, reducing him to nothing but dust. Frisk screams inside her head as Chara smears Flowey’s dust on her face, the dust burning her human skin.

_He was your brother! Your best friend! How could you do that to Flowey? To Asriel!_

Chara simply laughs and makes her way towards the barrier and the other human souls Asgore had captured over time.

_No… I won’t let you unleash your wrath outside. I won’t let you!_

“Oh but, Frisk, it’s already too late.” Chara whispers with a chuckle in a distorted version of Frisk’s voice.

_No it isn’t!_

Frisk argues and with a sudden tug, Frisk gets free, Chara underestimated their will power. Frisk immediately reaches for the Reset button; just as Chara realizes what Frisk is planning she tries to gain back the control and hold Frisk back, to no avail. The world resets to the point where Frisk falls into the underground, getting knocked out by her landing, and waking up on the bed of buttercups, where Chara is said to have been burried. During the first time line, there had been a voice in Frisk's head, which had belonged to Chara. Chara had asked her what Frisk’s name was and had seemed like a friend since she was healed with Chara’s determination. This time though, Chara was silent despite the determination filling Frisk and healing her again as she watches the flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was that prologue alright? Might be short but prologues are supposed to be short :)


	2. Soul split

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara is oddly quiet, has Frisk gotten all control back now and can she set things right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 1 (I know it says chapter 2 but I wanted to post the prologue seperately)  
> This'll be from Frisks POV.

Frisk’s POV

I did everything the same way as I had the first time up until I left the ruins. The doors slammed shut behind me and I take a deep breath, rubbing my magic fire burnt hand.

_Alright. I’ll be meeting Sans now. I wonder if he remembers the last time line._

I look down at myself. I am wearing the same blue and purple oversized jumper; there had been nothing in ‘my’ room in the ruins which had fit me so rather than be uncomfortable in too small clothing I kept the jumper I fell down in. I rub my eyes and sigh, feeling unsure about being able to get through this without Chara taking control again but up until now the murderous child had stayed quiet. Hoping it stays that way I bend down to brush off the sand I had gotten on my jeans from the times Toriel had knocked me over during the battle where I had to prove I am strong enough to survive outside of the ruins. Toriel had fought quite hard, even burnt me a couple times but thanks to my determination I did not give up and I am convinced I will get all the monsters to the surface safely without Chara taking control again now. I get down on one knee to check the laces of my brown, leather, worn-out hiking boots, I feel like I am being watched but shrug it off as I check the laces on the other boot. Then I remember the camera that is hidden in the bushes by the door to the left. Smirking, I turn to where the camera is and wink then focuses on her laces again.

_It seems like Alphys isn’t different in this timeline, watching me as she had in both previous time lines. Hope she got a kick out of me noticing the camera, I bet she's fan girling just as she does while watching Mew Mew Kissy Kissy, however, I can’t stall this any longer. Time to get going._

I get up, feeling better and start walking down the snowy path towards the bridge where I had met Sans for the first time, in both the previous time lines, though it was actually Chara who met him during the second time line and not me. A familiar force stops me in my tracks just as the tips of my boots touch the wood of the bridge; the skeleton makes his way towards me, I can hear the snow crunching under his slippers, a familiar rumbling voice speaks behind me as the foot steps stop.

“human. don’t you know how to greet a new pal? turn around and shake my hand.”

I smile and turn around quicker than I probably should have, I grab his hand which then makes a loud farting sound thanks to a whoopee cushion hidden in his hand. I laugh whole heartedly, not like Chara had in the previous time line, but there was a heaviness in my soul as I finally look at Sans’s face. He didn’t have the same happy look on his face as he had in the first time line.

“heh. the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick… you fell for it again, kid. it’s always funny.”

This is different from the previous times I have met Sans. Up until now he has always acted like he doesn’t remember the last time line or time lines. I am unsure what to say and am finding it hard to keep eye contact with Sans’s white lights. Sans sighs, breaking the eye contact and rubs the back of his skull.

“seems like you don’t recall. anyways, you’re a human, right? that’s hilarious. i’m sans. sans the skeleton.”

I feel uncomfortable and unsure whether to tell him I do remember or just to let it pass as if I don’t remember.

_It’s not like I am lying, I haven’t specifically said I don’t remember, he’s simply guessing I don’t remember. I’ll just go with the flow for now. No need to complicate things and I liked the first time line too much to mess it up this one._

Things happen exactly the same as the first pacifist route after that. Meeting Papyrus and the others, the puzzles, talking to monsters and so much more. Sans doesn’t mention remembering the previous time lines to me anymore either, it feels the same as when I went through the first time line. Until, I reach Alphys’s True Lab. It feels different but looks the same as the first time, the information panels lighting up as I pass by, filling me with dread and sympathy for Alphys as it did the first time. Still, the True Lab feels different from the first time, perhaps colder.

_It must have been tough on Alphys to be told to do this by the king, knowing that the chance of succeeding was so small and the chance of it going wrong so large. But, what is different in this time line compared to the previous ones to make it so cold? Everything looks the same. At least, from what I can remember._

I walk through the hallway with flowers and the mirrors, looking in the mirror I notice that my brown hair is a little tussled and that my eyes are still red despite not being controlled by Chara. I sigh and run my fingers through my hair like a comb in an attempt to fix it, my chest and soul lurch as I suddenly see Chara instead of me reflected in the mirror, covered in monster dust and her mouth slowly pulls into a twisted grin, the same murderous grin that Chara constantly had in the last time line. I cry out and cover my face with my hands, then wiping my hands over my jumper and face to try and wipe the non-existent dust off of myself. Taking a deep breath I look at myself one more time, relieved to see that despite everything it is still me, before moving on.

I continue walking around the lab, facing the various combined melting monsters, and becoming friends with them, in order to find the keys to unlock the big door. I do want to leave this place as soon as possible but am skeptical about facing Asgore, last time I got this far I had reset just before fighting Asgore since I didn’t want to fight any monster no matter what. I still feel the same way, however, this time is different; I will do my best at talking to Asgore and perhaps find another way out. A way so that not only I would make it out alive but all the friends I have made down here as well. If there isn’t, I am willing to sacrifice my own soul for the cause, but not until everything has been tried.

_Seems like quite a few things have been tried though, according to what I have seen here so far. But perhaps, reasoning with the king is still a possibility_

I sigh and smile, filled with determination to set my new friends free, knowing that a full reset to relive this amazing adventure will be a bad idea, might just as well enjoy this time line while it lasts. Last time, Chara took control and killed every single monster in the whole of the underground.

_I will not let that happen again._

Making my way down another hallway in order to find another key, I notice it is even colder, similar to the time when I had left her window open in my room on a cold winter day back on the surface. I don’t remember much from the surface and dwelling on it gives me a headache. Shaking the feeling off I advance down the hallway, in the room at the end I spot the fridges, just like they had in the previous time lines.

_Ah, I’ll be meeting that monster that likes snow puns here and they’ll drop the blue key. Hold up. Why is that fridge open?_

I stop in my tracks.

 “Hello? Is anyone here?” I call softly.

I keep looking at the fridge skeptically, not wanting to get too close but curiosity gets the better of me, I need to pass by the fridge anyway so might just as well take a peek. I push the fridge door further open and freeze up at what I see within. A human like body wearing a green and yellow striped shirt similar to my own, jeans and brown shoes, their hair is brown, roughly cut and short. It’s definitely meant to resemble a human girl, but it doesn’t look quite human.

_Who is this? Why does it look so similar to me?_

There’s a hard tug at my soul making me cry out in pain.

_Chara! No!_

I feel the splitting pain in my soul again before I can form another thought. My voice sounds distorted as I scream.

“L E T  M E  O U T !”

The pain becomes too much as I fall to my knees beside the fridge, grabbing the side to keep myself from falling flat on her face. The pain fades and I can focus my gaze on the dusty tiled floor again, my breathing is heavier and my heart is beating fast. My soul feels lighter, the same way it had when I had just fallen down into the underground, before hearing Chara ask my name.

_Chara? I knew you were still there. I won’t let you take control again!_

I am filled with… n o t h i n g ? A distorted, hair raising laugh fills the room as I attempt to get up; my legs ache as if a boulder has fallen on them. A cold white hand is placed over the top of my hand on the fridge which is keeping me steady.

“W-what?” I whisper and try to look up, but am too weak to do so, instead, I lean my head against the side of the fridge.

“Don’t worry, Frisk. I won’t take control over _YOU_ this time.” A distorted voice echoes through the room, making my blood run cold.

“C-Chara…!?”

I pull away my hand quickly and land on the ground in a bundle from the lack of support to keep me up, breathing heavily as I attempt to stay conscious, the room is spinning. The same maniacal laugh from the last time line fills the room, gradually increasing in volume, and I catch a glimpse of the human-like body stepping from the fridge. The human or monster crouches down and reaches for my jumper. They flick the jumper up to reveal my trouser line and part of my stomach but I hardly feel the cold nipping at my exposed skin, they smirk and take the sharp knife from my belt as well as the keys on the key chain of Frisk’s phone. Chara playfully runs the tip of the knife along my  belly, making sure I know what she is taking from me.

“I’ll need these more than you.”

The last thing I see is the blood red colour of Chara’s eyes in the face of the pale, brown haired child from the fridge, the same eyes that replaced mine during the last time line as well as in the mirror earlier. Chara turns, knife in hand, slashing down the amalgate monster with ease instead of telling it snow puns as I had intended to do, Chara grabs the blue key it dropped, putting it on the key chain taken from my phone, and then leaves as if nothing happened. I call out softly for help just as I pass out from the dull throb of pain enveloping my body.

But no one came…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, ok, so that happened!


	3. Another Human?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans visits Alphys but can't find her, he decides to check out the true lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some inspiration so this chapter came along pretty quickly! I'll try and keep updates frequent, like, one chapter every few days or so (1 to 4 days between update).  
> Enjoy :)

Sans’ POV

I step into Alphys’s lab and looks around the building for Alphys.

_heh. looks like she isn’t here._

I don’t usually walk anywhere at all but, honestly, I was too lazy to teleport so I walked from Snowdin, through Waterfall and into Hotland where the lab is located. Ofcourse, I could have asked the river man or lady but he or she gives me the creeps. Alphys is nowhere to be seen and the screen which usually shows what the human is up to is making static sounds and showing the static screen, only showing an image once in a while.

_a camera must have gotten busted._

 Mettaton’s body is still on the table upstairs, deactivated but the odd thing is that the door leading to the elevator which goes down to the True Lab is open along with a note lying on the ground in front of it. I slowly make my way towards the doorway and pick up the note left on the ground. Skim reading it quickly my smile falters a bit.

_set things right, huh? about time, alphys. i might just as well have a quick look down there. as good a time as any to check for anything useful or anything i may have left behind. was hoping to see alphys to ask her about the kid but, oh well._

I step through the doorway in order to get on the elevator but it isn’t there. When Alphys went down with it there must have been a defect on the elevator so now it isn’t working.

_looks like i have no choice then._

The room fills with a blue light as my eye glows with magic, ready to teleport the short distance down into the lab, I raise my hand to snap my fingers. As I do everything goes black; the blue light lost in the darkness of the void as I pass through it, the True Lab materializes around me. Looking around the abandoned lab there doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary except for the various piles of dust dotted around the place.

_did the monsters alphys brought here die after all? they were in a bad state last i saw them but alphys would have cleaned up or gotten mettaton to do so before his battle with the kid, can’t exactly believe this could have happened just now._

Seeing the piles of dust would have made my skin crawl, if I had any, as they reminded me of the nightmare I had. For the same reason I am not bothered by the cold as I walk around the lab, as I look around for anything of potential use to me or any of my belongings I may have left behind, as well as keeping an eye out for any surviving monsters that roam down here. The other door to the outside is open; I assume that that is how Alphys gets in and out now that the elevator is broken. Arriving in the room with the fridges I check through each fridge but none contain anything useful seeing as the determination supply is empty.

_hm, never knew how alphys got hold of so much determination seeing as one human had no more than one injection needle full of determination each time. only six humans fell so, that’d be six vials, hardly enough for so many monsters in need of it. frisk was never put in the determination extraction machine either._

I pick up an injection needle and sigh, knowing the monsters are probably extremely unstable without getting their regular dose of determination, then again, they became unstable thanks to the determination in the first place. Monsters cannot hold determination as well as humans can since monsters are made of dust and magic, humans are made of more than that. I turn to go to the back room but I stop in my tracks as I notice a bundle of… something… behind the last fridge.

_did a monster survive after all?_

“hey, buddy, you alright?”

The bundle doesn’t move so I decide to approach it. The bundle appears to be about the same size as the human that entered the underground a year or two ago, although, everyone else believes they fell just a month ago, no one else seems to be aware of the resets, not even the kid. Brown, worn out hiking boots are on their feet, dark blue jeans with a rip in the right knee cover their legs, and a blue and purple striped oversized jumper covers the rest of them.

_wait, isn’t this the human? no, this human has lighter hair and they don’t-  it doesn’t matter, whoever they are, they need help._

“hey, pal? wake up.”

I shake them but there is no reaction. They aren’t moving or breathing, their face almost as pale as my skull.

“fuck.”

Picking them up, I quickly realise they look exactly the same as the kid except for their hair and being as pale as a ghost, they are quite a bit lighter as well. A burn covers their right hand, most likely inflicted by Toriel when they’d gotten out of the ruins, just like the kid.

_did another human fall while everyone was distracted by frisk? that seems unlikely… then again… this kid is here._

A teleport is too risky for this kid seeing the state that they are in, I walk back to the door Alphys must have opened to the outside with the kid in my arms reassured by the sound of their beating heart in the silent lab once I focus on it. Looking down at their face I conclude that this human is also a female, like Frisk is. I hold them closer, bridal style, but hesitate in the second elevator. Setting the kid down with her back against the wall I remove my jacket and put it around her before picking her up again. Best to make sure she is shielded as well as warm as we pass through each part of the underground back to Snowdin. The colour still hasn’t returned to her face, this worries me. I take a deep breath, hold her closer and press the button, I step out once reach the floor which leads to the castle. Nothing seems unusual and I head off to the other elevator so we can start the long walk back to my place.

~

Almost in Snowdin the girl starts shivering quite a bit from the cold, it’s snowing from what I can see and there’s that snow storm we have to get through. My left eye flares blue, the blue flames licking at the side of my socket as I use my magic to keep us shielded while passing through the snow storm and keep her as warm as I can, being a skeleton that is difficult but being a skeleton with magic makes it a little easier. I chuckle and heat up my core temperature with my magic, sighing in relief once she stops shivering in my arms.

_Almost there, kid._

Once we are finally out of the snowstorm I realize that something is missing, can’t quite place what it is though. I look down at the kid, seeing their lips have gone blue and that her nose isn’t moving like it did while she was breathing. She isn’t breathing, but her heartbeat is still there, it’s still beating against my skeletal hand where I’m holding her. I curse myself and sit down on my knees in the snow, rubbing her back and opening her mouth to check nothing is blocking her airway. Patting her back a little rougher now to try and get her to take a breath.

“please, please, we are so close. you can’t just give up now!”

The kid coughs and takes a shaky breath after another minute of agonizing patting on her back and whispering encouraging words. I close my eye sockets and hug her close in relief, feeling oddly close to this kid despite only just meeting them.

“thank god...”

I whisper softly after the kid has gotten the steady rhythm of breathing again. Back up in my arms and on my feet again I notice some colour has returned to the kids face, the blue lips have faded back to pink and her nose looks a little red from the cold. Smiling in relief I make my way to my house, Papyrus will be out for another while doing some training with Undyne. Probably battling about who is Frisk’s best friend. Looking around the town there seems to be fewer monsters outside than the usual. I shrug it off, blaming the oncoming snowstorm for the town’s desolation and make my way into the house. The door isn’t usually locked as I’m too lazy to do so, besides, there aren’t any bad monsters here that’d come in and steal anything. I close the door with my foot and quickly lay the kid down on the couch, placing a pillow under their head. They are breathing but she hasn’t woken up yet, she looks just as if she were asleep and I would have thought she were if I hadn’t found her on the lab floor and nothing I had done was waking her. Kneeling by her side I gently move the hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear.

“You going to wake up, kid...?” I whisper softly to them, half hoping for her to open her eyes, but knowing that that is unlikely.

I decide to inspect the damage, but that wretched oversized jumper makes it impossible to see anything at all. Taking my jacket off them and placing it over the side of the couch I start by removing their hiking boots, she wasn’t wearing any socks in them as if she had just slipped them on quickly and hadn’t intended to be wearing the boots for very long. Her feet were in a bad state, her toes were nearly black which is a sign of near frost bite in humans. I feel up her legs to look for any damage there and find that her right leg was at a slightly strange angle, I try moving it and quickly realize both her legs must have been under a lot of sudden pressure. A fall perhaps? Or a boulder? I toss a blanket over her legs and feet hoping it’ll keep her warm while I check the rest of her. I skip any part I cannot check properly thanks to the jumper but the rest of her seems to be covered in scratches and bruises. Nothing serious.

I sigh and plop down on the couch opposite her, feeling exhausted from all the walking and the worrying. Shifting over until her feet were in my lap I hold them in my skeletal hands and use magic to get a little warmer, hoping she won’t lose her toes if I heat them up. I yawn and fall asleep, relieved to know she isn’t in danger of dying as far as I know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cute Sans is worried. Awwwww!


	4. Genocide?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is Chara doing now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a while to get this chapter right!

Chara’s POV

Walking back from the power generator, I wipe the monster dust off my blade on my faded green and yellow striped jumper which is already caked in the dust of all the other monsters from the True Lab. I laugh at how pathetic the monsters down here had been despite them actually having determination, mostly stolen from my body. No wonder my body is this weak after being drained of any remaining determination in order to help pathetically weak monsters. My laugh is quickly cut off as I hear a sound, picking up the pace; stumbling over my own feet I get to the doors of the elevator and peak out to see who it is.

_The comedian._

My smile widens as far as it can, holding back any chuckles threatening to escape as I think of his reaction if I were to surprise him right now and kill him, not needing to wait till the very end to kill him like I had to in the last time line before Frisk annoyingly and forcefully took control to reset again. No matter, I now have my body back, my patience has been rewarded apparently. I quickly hide as the comedian looks over, clearly puzzled by the second elevators doors being open, but he just shrugs it off and continues his exploration of the lab.

_That’s right. Nothing suspicious here at all, comedian._

I decide to face him later, I am a too low LEVEL and don’t have enough LOVE right now to face him, besides, I do not know if I have the power to reset if he were to kill me. It’d be unfortunate to find that out the hard way, I’ll need to find a save point as soon as I get out of here. Sans is now far enough away to not hear the elevator, I click the button and wait for the elevator to go up to the castle where I know my adoptive father is waiting for the impending battle with Frisk. I laugh as I look down the corridor but decide to take the other elevator down to start where I started last time.

_The Ruins. Here I come, mother, have you missed your little daughter?_

I laugh again as I get off the elevator and walk through the core, avoiding any monsters so I don’t have the urge to kill them off right there and then.

~

I look up at the huge door into the ruins, rubbing my arms to stay warm from the cold, it hasn’t bothered me like this in a long time. I push at the door, it won’t budge so I try to pull instead, still nothing.

“Ugh... what is it with monsters and locking doors? What’s the worst that could happen?”

I laugh softly to myself knowing exactly what. Then I take out my knife and try to pry the door open with it, suddenly there’s a click and the door swings open with a low creak.

“My child? Have you returned?” Toriel asks, sounding hopeful.

My smile falters and I quickly hide my knife in my belt, feeling slightly odd seeing mother again after so long.

“Mother? I’m home.”

Toriel looks down at me, shock and confusion written all over her face, clearly not quite sure about who exactly I am but for some reason she believes I am Frisk. Did we really look that similar?

“I’m glad you are back, my child, I know I told you that you cannot return after leaving but I decided that to be unfair. I’ve awaited your return hopefully and am so happy to finally see you back here. How about I make some pie to celebrate your return?” Toriel blabbers on, clearly showing concern for me, or... actually for Frisk in this case. It’s been a long time since anyone has shown concern and care for me either way.

“I’d like that, mother.” I say as I slip into the ruins past her and start walking down the hallway with her.

“You have not caught a cold out there, have you my child? It’d be very unfortunate to be sick now.”

“I don’t think I have, though I am very cold. Why?”

Toriel smiles with concern as she answer.

“Your voice seems different form before, but I am glad you are so talkative for once, my child, perhaps I am simply imagining things as I have not heard you speak in so long.”

_Shoot, right, Frisk hardly spoke during this time line. Quite pathetic of you to dismiss it like this though, mother._

I fake a cough and rub my nose with my sleeve.

“Maybe I have caught a cold afterall.”

“In that case you will go straight to bed while I make you butterscotch cinnamon pie and tea. I do not want you wandering around if you are sick, my child.”

I nod as I plan my escape from my room in order to get the deed done.

“Don’t worry, mother, I won’t.”

~

Toriel closes the door to the bedroom I am in which was designated to each of the fallen children through the time, and was at one point also Frisk’s room.

_Finally, she’s left me alone._

I get out of the bed, stuffed with tea and pie by Toriel in the hopes of getting me better, I can understand her concern as I had died from an ‘unknown’ illness while in her care. Pathetic really that she hasn’t gotten over that yet. Now she has finally left me alone to sleep, but I won’t be doing much sleeping at all. I open the door quietly and tip toe down the hallway, knowing full well I need to get stronger before facing Toriel or else I may need to reset and I don’t know whether it is me or Frisk who kept the power.

_Safest not to risk it._

I get to the door but peak into the living room first seeing Toriel in the reading chair with an open book about snails in her lap, fast asleep. She must have gotten tired with worry about Frisk’s wellbeing and then ‘Frisk’ being sick took its toll on her. Opening the door I am greeted by the rest of the dull rocks of the ruins.

_My favourite place... not._

I sneak out and close the door behind me. Hurrying along the path and passing the puzzles easily as I cut down any monster who dares face me. All the monsters are friendly to me.

_I’m not Frisk, you imbecil! Die die die!_

I laugh hysterically as the last froggit turns to dust, the knife I’ve been wielding slips from my hand.

“Huh?”

Confused I look down at the knife and go to pick it up again but I catch sight of my... hand? With a scream I leap back and fall onto my butt, staring at the melted mess that is supposed to be my hand.

_Why?_

As I glare at the melted mess I tear a strip from my jumper I wrap it around the melting hand so it is at least a hand shape again. I pick up my knife with my left hand instead and head back towards the house, intent on finishing my business here in the ruins. I want Toriel to try and stop me leaving again so I loudly run across the hallway and down into the long hallway which leads to Snowdin. I hear Toriel shout after me and then suddenly feel her paw grab my bandaged hand.

“Child, you’re not well, you cannot leave.”

Without a single word I pull free and take off sprinting down the hallway, hiding a wicked smile of joy at abusing her concern for me. A monster killer. It’s purely laughable! I laugh as I reach the door.

“Are you playing games, my child? We can play once you’re better. Let’s go back.” She pleads to me.

“No, mother. I’m strong enough to survive out there.”

“I cannot let you leave.”

“I’m not asking you to let me. I’ll let myself out.”

I smirk at her as I pull my knife from my belt and swish the knife in front of me, sending the red magic I possess at her in slashes. Toriel stares in horror at her child attacking her and is unable to dodge, she falls to her knees.

“My child...” She whispers “Why?”

“Stop calling me that. My name is Chara.” I grin as I move closer, knowing her HP has dropped to only 1 point.

“C-chara?” She stares, unable to react, not knowing how to react.

Before I can open my mouth to speak again she has pulled me into her arms and is hugging me bone crushingly tight, I feel her tears dripping onto my shoulder as she is overwhelmed with joy and all the feelings that have built up over time.

_Why doesn’t she hate me? I died. I left her. I caused Asriel death. And now I attacked her._

“Oh my child. Oh Chara. I thought I lost you. I... I... I am so happy you’re back. It’s ok, I know you must be confused, I’m not mad at you for how you reacted. I’m sorry for-“

My knife has imbedded itself between her shoulder blades as I went to return the hug, the smile never leaving my lips.

“Goodbye, mother.” I whisper in her ear.

She turns to dust in my arms, leaving me completely covered so I pat her dust off myself and scoff at the mess. Once I get a sufficient amount brushed off myself I wipe the knife off on my faded green and yellow striped jumper. I turn away from the pile of dust, still smiling as I push the large door’s I passed through not that long ago open once again.

_Snowdin is next._

~

As I step over the broken sturdy branch and see the bridge in the distance I can’t shake the feeling that perhaps Sans will be meeting me here after all. Once I cross the bridge I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was even holding.

_Odd, why would I fear a pathetic comedian?_

I pass the oddly shaped lamp which Frisk hid behind from Papyrus when he was still attempting to capture a human rather than befriend one. Pathetic. Straying from his original objective so easily. I won’t be swayed from mine. I pass into the next area, seeing a save point ahead I decide to save my progress so far. The convenience of the lamp still fills me with determination! I smile, happy it still works and I check the box for anything useful but only find a spider donut which Frisk left in a box further ahead at some point.

_Useless child. I take the donut anyway, Frisk won’t have use for it now anyway._

I smile to myself as I remember her laying on the cold floor of the True Lab once I left her body. Without my determination she simply crumbled, her determination was already in shambles when she fell so it was easy to enter her soul. Walking up the path to the fishing rod I know should still be there, I decide to reel it in. The number for that weird looking monster is still attached to it. I roll my eyes and head back down.

_That was a waste of time._

Before I can get much further I get faced by the other monsters of Snowdin, I really cannot be bothered pretending to be Frisk so I simply cut them down, watching them turn to piles of dust. Next I pass by the sentry station of Doggo, he quickly leaps up and out, eager to meet up with me and to be petted. I just sigh in annoyance and cut him down with my knife, watching him turn to dust around my knife imbedded in his chest.

“Stupid dog.”

 “Snow way! Is that you Frisk?”

The Snowdrake laughs at its own bad pun and I roll my eyes, then bring my knife up and cut him down.

“Your dad was right. Your jokes are bad.” I grin, seeing the torment I am putting him through just as he dies and turns to dust.

My green and yellow striped jumper is covered in dust again which I quickly pat off and then go to wipe my dust covered knife in the snow.

_Swear I’m more covered in monster dust than ever._

I continue on down the snowy path, intent on bringing every monster in Snowdin to it’s end.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if there are any mistakes! Punctuation, Spelling, Grammar and Factual information.


	5. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is sure to be nightmare fuel for Frisk.

Frisk’s POV

I jolt up from the bed, the blanket has fallen onto the ground beside the bed, my chest hurts where my soul is located. Taking in my surroundings I realize I am in a completely different place, this is my room in the ruins. Slowly I get out of the bed and put on my hiking boots that I placed under the bed before.

_Did I reset to this spot?_

Unsure about what has happened or what is going on I make my way to the door and place my hand on the door knob hesitantly.

_Did I die?_

The hallway is eerily dark and empty. This doesn’t feel the same as before, it has never felt like this before in Toriel’s home. It has always felt so welcoming and homely, but now, it just feels so empty. I step out into the hallway and close my bedroom door behind me quietly but even the click of the door echoes through the hallway.

“Hello?” I call softly, hoping for an answer but only getting my own voice echoed back at me.

My own voice made me feel uneasy, it felt out of the place and odd, like it wasn’t my voice at all. I ponder this for a moment, unsure why I feel this way. Surely my own voice should sound natural to me? A sharp throb cuts through my head making me place my hands on either of my temples and closing my eyes tightly in pain, the headache preventing me from looking back too far in my memories to figure it out. Not doing that again, best not think about it and simply move on for now. It’ll come to me eventually like most things do. I open my eyes just to see that the floor is dusty, as if no one has been here in a very long time. Crouching down to investigate the floor closer I realize the dust is luckily not monster dust but just regular everyday allergy awakening dust, ahead on the floor there’s a buttercup flower which I reach for and pick up but it is so dry and fragile that it breaks at even my touch.

_Toriel would never let her flowers die like this, let alone let her house get into such a state of dismay._

I get back up, intent on finding out what is going on, deciding that the best course of action will be to find Sans and Papyrus, they’ll help me figure this out. The chain, which blocked the way to the stairs leading down into the ridiculously long hallway and the door which separates the ruins from the snowy part of the underground, is already unlocked so I reach the stairs unhindered. At the bottom of the stairs Toriel’s words echo in my head from the time she caught me snooping down here the first time.

“I think you should play upstairs instead.”

I feel a tug at my soul as I am reminded of the last timeline where Chara cut her down. I take another step and her voice plays again in my head.

“It’s dangerous to play here.”

Taking a deep breath as I fight the tears from escaping, I take another step. Toriel’s concerned words reach me again.

“It is drafty here. You’ll catch a cold.”

I stop walking, realizing now that the voice wasn’t just in my head but was also echoing off the walls of the hallway.

_How?_

I can turn back, go back upstairs and stop continuing to find out what is going on. But I am too stubborn to do anything like that; besides, the house just feels so lonely and sad now. Taking yet another step, Toriel’s concerned voice is quick to follow.

“It’s dusty down here. You’ll catch a cough.”

I laugh softly, thinking of the dust covering the floors upstairs. Before I can stop my hands from moving I realize I am signing out the words in a sign language.

**It’s dusty upstairs too.**

I stare down at my hands. When did I learn to sign? I’m not deaf. Maybe I know someone who is. Then again, why did it feel so much more natural than speaking? I sigh and stuff my hands in the pockets of my jeans to keep it from happening again. Taking several quick steps, Toriel’s voice echoes in the hallway again, but this time it mixes with another echo which is also her voice.

“There’s nothing to see here.” And at the same time “Do you want to read a book?”

This confuses me further.

_Is it just a recording? Meant to trigger as I move forward?_

Taking my hands from my pockets in order to clench them into fists I sprint the rest of the hallway, Toriel’s voice overlapping with her own, concerned mixed with slight annoyance as I am not listening to her but I am unable to pick up any one of her words now.

Panting I stand at the end of the hallway and turn left to get to the door but stop dead in my tracks.

“Don’t try to stop me. This is your final warning.”

Toriel’s last whisper to me goes by unnoticed as I stare at her body propped up against the left wall at the end of the hallway by the now open ruins door. Tears well up in my eyes, blurring my vision as I stumble to Toriel’s life-less body, several cuts littering her body and a deep, fatal stab wound where her soul would be.

_No... MOM!_

Pain floods my body as I collapse by the body of the only mother I can remember, the one person showing me love and being concerned about me on such a loving level. The tears finally escape, leaving wet trails down my cheeks and landing on my clenched hands atop my legs as I kneel by her body. Silently crying and mourning her loss like I couldn’t when Chara did this. I open my eyes again to look at Toriel one last time, but she is gone, looking around the hallway seems a lot brighter now too. Less grey, more colour. Toriel is standing in front of the now closed doors and she is speaking but I cannot hear her, she’s looking past me at someone. Turning to look, my blood runs cold and the colour drains from my face.

_Chara._

Chara is standing at the edge of the wall, only half in view but already I can see her broad smile. Her knife taps the wall before she comes into full view; she looks so similar to me. The largest difference being her eyes. Mine are blue, hers are red. The fight starts and luckily none of the fire balls or red magic slashes hit me where I am sitting against the wall. Toriel sends out her fire magic in order to stop Chara from leaving, I still cannot hear what she is saying. Chara dodges like an expert, as if she has predicted each and every single attack and knows when they are coming. It looks a lot like a dance. Chara lands another hit on Toriel, this time her red magic slicing Toriel’s cheek. I cover my face, unwilling to see anymore. Suddenly, sound returns to my ears. Toriel gasps and there’s a thud as she falls to the floor.

“Be good... my child...” She whispers.

I keep my eyes covered with my hands, not looking up when I sense Chara standing over me.

“What’s the matter? Do you want the control back?” Chara says to me in her regular voice, but no emotion is betrayed in it.

I don’t react to Chara and when I open my eyes to look up at her, she is gone. The Ruins door is wide open, everything is tinted grey again and Toriel’s body is propped up against the wall beside me, blood still seeping from the gash on her cheek.

_Why... She was our mother..._

Tears well up in my eyes again, making it difficult to see, my chests aches at seeing Toriel in such a state. I get up, Chara must be stopped before she does this to everyone else.

~

I follow Chara’s foot prints in the snow from the ruins, everywhere I look there have been monsters cut down by her wielding knife, leaving them to bleed in the snow. Chara’s footprints are now red from all the monster blood she must be covered in, this makes my blood boil with anger.

_How could she do this to them?_

I pass through the town called Snowdin, but even every monster here has been left for dead. Blood spatters cover the building walls and in certain patches of snow Chara’s hand prints and knife print appear, she must have wiped them off there so they can get dirty again. Clenching my fists I lower my head so I don’t need to witness her path of destruction and I simply focus on her foot prints when I stumble over a red scarf in the snow.

_Papyrus?_

I grab the scarf to pick it up but it won’t budge from the snow.

_No._

Following where the scarf leads into the snow I start digging and pushing aside the snow until I find Papyrus, covered by the new snow and bleeding. I shake him in an attempt to wake him. Skeletons don’t feel cold! He should just be a little stiff. Papyrus doesn’t react. Water droplets fall onto his skull and it takes me a moment to realize I am crying again. Carefully I cover him up with the snow again, unwilling to look at his broken skull again. I huddle up in the snow, wanting to reset, just to restart everything, the cold snow makes me shiver and soaked but I don’t care.

The next thing I hear is crunching in the snow so I open my eyes and look. Colour has returned to the world around me again and Papyrus is standing in front of me with his arms spread for a hug, soon enough human arms wrap around him in a hug. Before I can react the knife that was in one hand in rammed through his armor and ribs, the white clothing around the wound slowly starts staining red and once the human arms retreat, Papyrus collapses to the gorund. Finally Papyrus’s voice reaches my ears.

“ST...STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER! EVEN IF YOU DON’T THINK SO! I... I PROMISE...”

Papyrus sounds a little unsure as Chara approaches again. As I choke back sobs Chara simply pierces Papyrus’s skull with her knife and his body goes completely still. Chara pulls back her blood soaked knife and looks over at me, she opens her mouth to speak to me but before she can, the world around me fades to black and I am in the loading screen. Reset or Continue are my options. Chara isn’t here and I reach for the Reset button, any timeline is better than this one. Before I can touch the button a bony white hand grabs mine.

“what are you doing, kid?”

_Sans!_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think?


	6. Feeling?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara is acting odd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this being later than the usual but I just couldn't decide on how to write this chapter.

Chara’s POV

As I look upon the pile of dust in front of me my soul twitches as if in regret, however, not quite the same as it had when I was last alive. I shrug it off, probably having misinterpreted this feeling. Smirking I kick the pile of dust and laugh loudly, it echoes across the snowy plains, following the red scarf caught by the wind. I watch the bright red scarf get carried away while I wipe the knife off in the snow before heading off into Waterfall, having finished with Snowdin. For now. I step over the pile of dust left behind from the tall and loud skeleton, glad his annoyingly loud voice isn’t filling the wonderful silence around me any longer, and I relish in it. All too soon I reach Waterfall where there is the constant sound of running water all around no matter where you are. I grumble with annoyance.

“At least it isn’t as annoying as certain monsters here in the underground.”

Before crossing the waterfall ahead I decide to have a look behind it where there is a camera located. I smile my usual smile which seems to make monsters quiver right at the camera before using my knife to destroy it. I have been destroying every camera on my journey, not liking to be watched in secret, after all, that lizard scientist might even alert the monsters of the underground if she saw something she didn’t particularly like. My lips curl into a cruel smile.

_Like Undyne’s death._

I move along, intent on getting out of this horribly humid environment. Light seems to be quite limited, being permanently night with the star like crystals flickering up above on the underground’s ceiling. Some might even say it’s beautiful but compared to real stars, it is nothing.

_Asriel wanted to see the stars..._

I quickly shake the thought from my mind and face the path ahead. I don’t have time to linger on the past. All that matters is that I will destroy this place, monsters will be no more. After all, it’s human nature to destroy. I smirk at the thought as I walk through the tall grass.

_Oh. Frisk and I hid here from Undyne. I’d like to know where she is now. I should pay her a visit._

Once I step out of the grass there is a rustling behind me just as the monster kid without arms pops out and trips over its own feet, but he quickly gets up again.

“Yo! You’re back in Waterfall, Frisk! Have you seen Undyne around?”

I stare at the kid and tighten my grip on the knife. When I don’t answer the kid looks confused.

“What? Cat got your tongue? Anyway! I’m gonna go find Undyne! She’s sure to be around here somewhere!”

Before I have a chance to cut the kid down he runs off again in the distance in search of his idol. My hand trembles slightly and I look down at it in confusion but quickly shake the feeling off.

_What was that feeling? I shouldn’t be feeling anything. These monsters deserve to be dusted. Don’t worry kid. I’ll find Undyne for you._

I grin a bit and start down the path through Waterfall again in the hopes of bumping into the royal guard fish lady. I cross the bridge of lily flowers carefully, so I don’t end up tumbling into the water and just as I reach the other side an Aaron monster appears before me, surprising me and causing me to stumble back and fall into the water. He looks apologetic at me but a slight smile reveals that I must look funny sitting in the water completely drenched. He holds out a hand in order to help me up and I accept, accidentally giving him my bad, bandaged hand. A stinging pain shoots up from my hand to my shoulder and I cry out, rapidly pulling my hand away once he had gotten me up. Before he can utter a word of apology I dust him with my red, blade magic which practically slices him in half before he could dust. I look down at my hand, the cloth I had wrapped around it earlier has slipped off and my hand was simply a gooey mess, nothing revealing that it had once been my hand. My arm feels odd as well, as I roll up the sleeve of my green and yellow striped jumper it slowly reveals that the rest of my arm has become a sticky mess as well, similar to the monsters that used to roam the True Lab.

_Too much determination? But, I am not a monster, I’m a human. Human’s don’t melt from too much determination, do they?_

Confused and irritated at this change of circumstances I rip another long strip off my jumper and slip it off, just in my brown sleeveless blouse now I wrap the piece of cloth around my ‘arm’ tightly so it’ll keep its usual shape as well as my hand, which looks more like a mitten now with the cloth around it than the way I had done before cause I had wrapped each individual finger, they have melted together and I cannot separate them, a mitten is better than a gooey, dripping mess though. I sigh as I look over my efforts and use the hair pins from my pocket to keep the cloth in place around my arm and attached to the brown blouse too. I slip the jumper back on, the bottom part has been stripped enough to be the correct length for me now at least rather than hanging down over my hips.

_Might just as well check what LV I am now and how much more EXP I need for the next LV._

I close my eyes to open the menu, opening my eyes I see the menu before me and I go into the stats section but it’s corrupted and glitch so I cannot read it. With annoyance I close the menu again and get up off the ground and pick up the knife with my left hand which has not been mittenized. I continue walking down the path and cutting down any Aaron’s that appear before me, expecting me to be a friend rather than foe. The sensation in my right arm and hand is becoming less and less with each monster I dust, and from the power of my cuts I can easily deduce that I should be able to face that pathetic royal guard Undyne. The next part of Waterfall I enter has the echo flowers.

_Best be careful about what I say here. Then again... I could mess with the comedian._

I smirk and whisper something to the flowers, they echo it back to me and I smile with satisfaction at what I had said. I say something new in the next flower and the next, and I keep doing this for a while, in the hopes of messing with the comedian named Sans once he passes through here to judge me in the judgement hall. He needs to pass through Waterfall to get there after all. I stop walking again when I notice the telescope, I know if I look through it I will fall for the comedians prank. I kick over the telescope, shattering the glass lens in the process. Huffing with annoyance I move up the road to the wall and through the hole, now in a new area of Waterfall and no more monsters facing me either.

_Did I get them all so easily? Pathetic._

Walking over the wooden planked walkway, I realize this is where Undyne had attacked Frisk, but now she wasn’t present. Rather boring really seeing as the path is so long and no other monsters are popping up either. With mild annoyance I continue my path at a brisk pace, eager to face any monster for a really challenging battle. At the end of the wooden path I enter the tall grass again.

_Was I mistaken? No, Frisk and I hid twice from Undyne in the grass._

I sigh as I move through the grass, at first swiping at it with my knife but that proved to be tiresome so I resorted to pushing it out of my way as I step forward, the blades of grass aren’t called blades for nothing apparently! The stupid green stuff has cut my good hand quite a few times, the size of the cuts may not be too big but it stings a lot. Once I am out of the tall grass I rip another strip from my jumper in order to wrap it around my hand but, ironically, the monster dust causes my hand to sting more.

“Ow! You pathetic monster! Hurting me post death!” I yell out as I run to the water and shove my hand in along with the strip of cloth I had just ripped off.

The green strip of cloth slips from my hand and is carried downstream, much to my dismay as it now means I must rip another strip off. This time I pat the dust off my jumper and rip off a strip with the least amount of monster dust caking it. I dry my hand on my jumper and carefully wrap the strip around my hand.

_Great, now both my hands are wrapped. This’ll incapacitate my knife swinging abilities, luckily I can always resort to long distance slashing thanks to my red magic._

I smirk, and look at my own reflection in the water, seeing my red eyes light up a bit, quite similar to the blue magic Sans has in his eye when using his magic.

_Too bad I cannot heal yourself, my magic isn’t much good at healing anyway._

Sighing I stroke my cut hand with my melting hand, realizing there is hardly any sensation in that hand now. I dismiss the thought, it’s probably just due to the cloth covering it. I get up to continue on my path of destruction.

~

I stop by a worn down statue, it has moss growing on it thanks to the water dripping onto it form the ceiling. Looking up, I realize the cracks have gotten bigger causing more water to fall than usual. The corridor is incredibly empty and quiet, making me actually feeling a little bit lonely, last time I was here in a body of my own was with Asriel.

_Wait, that reminds me._

I go ahead and grab an umbrella and carefully place it in the crook of the arm of the statue so it doesn’t get more water dripping on it. I wait for a moment and then a music box starts playing a familiar tune. I freeze up and stare at the statue. Several moments pass by before I quickly run off and past the umbrella bin into the rain, getting drenched as my heart pounds hard against my ribs. I stop in the middle of the permanent rain which has already soaked through my jumper to my brown blouse as well as through my jeans and make shift bandages.

_What the HELL was that?_

I groan softly, annoyed at my own stupidity and the fact that I am completely drenched due to such stupidity. I continue on my way until I get to the point where the castle, my old home, can be seen in the distance. Taking off my jumper and laying it on the ground to dry, I decide to stay here awhile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope the chapter was as good as the previous!


	7. Recovering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can't write anything :3 it'd be a spoiler!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. It is a little longer than the previous chapters cause I went on bit of a writing spree of 2 hours straight basically. :)

Frisk’s POV

I sit frozen, unsure what to do or what to say, not daring to turn around and face the skeleton I have considered my friend in a previous time line. There is no way to know whether Sans still trusts me or not, there is only one way to find out though. I turn around and see him, his arms outstretched for a hug.

_Wait, wasn’t he holding my-_

Before I can finish the thought I have looked down at my hand which is holding Chara’s blade and Sans is looking at me with those small white orbs of light in his eye sockets. He looks rather tired, sweat dripping off his skull and breathing quite heavily.

“just lay down your weapon, and...”

No thoughts can form in my mind as I realize where I am, but this time I am fully in control. I stand frozen, unsure how to react or act. Not even sure about how I got here in the first place other than... Chara bringing me here somehow while she was in control, and letting me go through the torture of reducing my friend to dust or to let me have mercy on him, meaning I will go through a lot of pain when he attacks, believing I am that megalomaniac. Sans has closed his eyes as he says the next part of his usual plea in the battle to me. He has become so predictable, just like everyone else, despite him knowing about the timelines.

“well, my job will be a lot easier.”

He opens his eyes again to look at me pleadingly and expectantly, the white lights in his sockets wavering a little, either with excitement or sadness, I cannot tell. Sans is sparing me. My grip on the knife tightens as I go through the possible scenarios once more. I spare him, I die and restart from the last save point, so then Chara will kill him instead. I attack and I will be the one to blame for his death. The only difference is what kind of pain I will receive. Physical or emotional pain. I make my decision and drop my knife, running at Sans, tears rolling down my cheeks as I know the inevitable will come but maybe, just maybe, I can show my friend love one last time. His eye sockets close thoughtfully.

“... you’re sparing me? finally.”

Sans smiles and looks away for a second, then when he looks back at me still moving towards him he is winking with his right eye, I know his attack is coming soon, but I must reach him.

“buddy. pal. i know how hard it must be...”

His eye sockets close once more, I just need to go a few more steps, then I can leap at him before he ends me.

“to make that choice. to go back on everything you’ve worked up to.”

I realize that leaping will seem like an attack to him so I slow down to a walk and intend to take the last steps towards him as peacefully as I can.

“i want you to know... i won’t let it go to waste.”

Finally I am within reach and I quickly grab his coat to pull him to me as I take the last step.

“... c’mere pal.”

He hugs me as I hug him, butterflies flutter in my tummy and I close my eyes, waiting for the pain to replace the warmth and safety I now feel.

...

It takes too long, by now I would have been killed, right?

_What is going on? This is... different.”_

I open my eyes and realize I am no longer in judgement hall, my soul still feels lighter than in the other time lines, my face is buried in the fluff of Sans’ hood still and his arms are wrapped around me. We are... laying down? As I turn my head a bit to take in my surroundings I spot the familiar living room of the skeleton brothers. I am laying on their couch, a blanket around me and Sans hugging me like he is holding onto dear life. Shifting a bit to tuck my hair behind my ear I notice it is blond rather than brown, this surprises me as I have always had brown hair down in the underground. Sans distracts me from this new discovery as he mumbles my name.

“frisk...”

I tuck back in to continue cuddling him, it is rather cozy thanks to the blanket and his coat, no bones are jabbing me. A shiver goes down my spine as I remember the attack’s and the last one I had anticipated which never happened in my... dream or nightmare? It was a dream in the sense that I finally had control and Sans didn’t kill me when I showed him mercy but also a nightmare at seeing all the friends I had made dead and bleeding. That doesn’t make any sense though, monster bodies turn to dust when there is no soul to hold it together anymore but, they had been bleeding and the bodies kept their shape despite there being no soul present.

_The wonders of the nightmare world, I suppose..._

I sigh contently as I get cozy once more and close my eyes, my fingers, nose and toes were tingling a bit as if they had been severely cold not that long ago but it was fading thanks to Sans. He continues mumbling in his sleep but I can’t really pick out what he is saying.

“c’mere pal...”

That I did here and it made another shiver go down my spine, I hug him tighter not wanting my expectations from the nightmare to be met here. Sans groans groggily and moves, his hands are on either side of my head on the couch as he pushes himself up a bit. I open my eyes and squeak softly in surprise at how close he actually is to my face.

“huh, blue eyes. didn’t expect that.”

I continue staring up at him, my hand are still on his sides where my arms had been wrapped around to hug before he had moved. A cold breeze coming from the window makes me shiver now that we aren’t lying so close together anymore. Sans is watching me with curiosity and fascination.

_What? Did I reset and is this how we meet?_

I try to speak but no sound comes out, Sans frowns at me as he doesn’t seem to understand what I am trying to do, I remember the dream nightmare I had and move my hands in the correct symbols to form the sentence.

**Don’t you recognize me?**

This causes Sans to push up and sit back at almost the other end of the couch, his left eye flaring with blue magic as his right is completely black, his right hand is on his chest where his soul is located, like humans do when their hearts are basically beating out of their chests, his left hand however is raised at me, also covered in his blue magic. I cower, pulling the blanket up a bit in a futile attempt to escape his magic which has now turned my soul blue and is clenching it uncomfortably tight. He stares at me for a long time before finally asking in a forced neutral tone of voice.

“who are you?”

I look away, saddened that he does not recognize me after all. His voice becomes more forceful along with the grip on my soul as he repeats the question.

“who are you?”

I sit up properly and let the blanket fall in my lap, I raise my hands and slowly sign the letters needed to create my name. It is more comfortable than actually speaking but the signing takes getting used to after not doing it for a couple years.

**Frisk.**

Sans looks confused at my hands and then looks up at my face, his grip on my soul lessens a tiny bit and he looks upon me for a split second as a friend but then looks down at my hands suspiciously again as he mumbles.

“you are not frisk. frisk can speak and has brown short hair.”

Reaching up to my hair I move it a little so I can see the colour once more. Definitely not brown, it’s blond. The Frisk he knows has brown hair just like Chara does but I am the real Frisk. Chara had somehow altered me by sharing the same body, like a combination and now we have split so we can be fully ourselves.

**Yes I am. I am wearing the same clothes the day you met me and my eyes are the same colour as in the first time line.**

He looks confused and takes a moment to think back, which is more difficult for him since he has been through so many timelines without being able to control it. Each day having the potential of restarting if Frisk died and restarted from the last save point. This probably made the details of each time line harder to remember for him.

“Just clothes and eyes don’t make you Frisk. Your hair is the wrong colour and you could speak although you didn’t speak much.”

Sighing I continue to attempt to persuade him.

**How do I know about the timelines then?**

My hands are starting to ache from the signing, my finger tips are slightly blue and I realize why my digits, toes and nose are tingling.

_I got frost bite and... Sans was warming me up despite not knowing who I was._

Sans audibly groans and let’s go of my soul, the blue magic fades as he rubs his face with his hands. The sound of bone rubbing over bone has always been an odd sound to me. I sigh in relief as the pressure fades from my soul and it feels light and unburdened once more, smiling a bit I nudge Sans’ leg to get his attention, once he looks up at me I sign to him with a grateful expression.

**Thank you for taking care of me.**

“that’s what friends are for, kid.”

**So, you have decided to believe me? That I am Frisk?**

He nods and I practically leap at him, hugging him tight, causing him to fall backwards and, luckily, landing with his head in a pillow leaning against the couch arm. Sans chuckles and hugs me back.

“hey, don’t cry.”

I open my eyes and notice the tear stains on his white shirt he wears under his hoodie now, my tear stains to be exact. Rather than pull back to answer him I hug him tighter, not wanting to let go of my friend. So much time passes that I think Sans has fallen asleep as he usually does, his chest moves when he breaths but, I don’t think he has the lungs to be able to do that. It was soothing anyway as I have almost dozed off when his voice rumbles above me again.

“does this mean you are... purely frisk? no more of that... genocidal freak?”

I simply nod, letting him piece it together since I don’t want to move so that he can see my hands.

“where is she now?”

The best I can answer that question is to shrug, Sans doesn’t like that and pulls me out of the comfortable position I was in.

“you don’t know?”

I shake my head and reluctantly start signing to him again, might just as well seeing as he pulled me up.

**No, she split from me when I was in the True Lab checking up on the monsters there. I don’t know how she did or why and I do not remember much other than a figure taking the knife I had found earlier as well as the keys to the elevator.**

My hands are shaking a bit at this point as I attempt to recall the events of that night, but mostly it just comes up blurry with a lot of blanks.

“makes sense seeing as that is where i found you passed out.”

Looking thoughtfully down, he continues to piece things together until I start having a coughing fit and nearly fall over from the sudden dizziness. Sans steadies me by grabbing my shoulders but that causes pain to shoot up from my shoulders to my head and makes everything very blurry and hard to focus on. After a few moments I can focus again, now lying on the couch with the blanket over me and Sans nowhere to be seen. I attempt to sit up but the pain in my legs won’t let me this time so I give up and continue staring at the wall since I am lying on my side. Finally Sans comes into view, appearing out of nothing and his left eye is flowing with magic, out of instinct I jolt back and hold up my arms defensively.

“you alright now, kid? i got you some soup. not the best but doubt you can keep down papyrus’ spaghetti right now.”

Lowering my arms so I can see again, Sans is sitting next to the couch on the floor with a bowl of soup and a worried smile on his face. The mention of Papyrus makes my memories flash back to the nightmare where I saw Papyrus’ body under the snow, bleeding, after having been attacked by Chara, just before my attempt to reset. The room seems to darken around us and I can almost picture the reset screen before me but it fades as soon as I feel Sans’ hand on mine, looking more worried and a little upset too. I smile in order to reassure him and shake my head.

“you’ll get well soon enough. here, i will help you.”

With great care he helps me eat the soup, can’t quite place what kind it is but perhaps a mixture of tomato and onion soup. Not the best combination but anything will do to settle my stomach right now, though, swallowing is a little difficult if a skeleton is staring at your chest. I place my hand over my chest for him to get the hint but he simply sighs and looks back up at my face, which is riddled with questions I cannot ask easily laying like this.

“it’s nothing, kid. just eat your soup.”

He continues feeding me patiently until the bowl is empty.

“i will be back soon. just rest, alright?”

I nod and lay down as comfortably as I can while Sans leaves the house to do stuff I didn’t have the energy to ask about anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is Sans up to?


	8. Papyrus!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was determined to finish this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you know, it has been 4 days since my last update, so, here you are. A new very interesting chapter I have been dying to write!

Frisk’s POV

I jolt awake and quickly sit up, covering my head with my arms in defense, as I heard a loud bang. Opening my eyes I see Sans standing by the door, eye sockets completely black, snow covering his shorts and hoodie jacket and... I stare for a while, the information of what I am seeing not quite clicking until Sans speaks.

“papyrus won’t be coming home...”

I continue staring at the red torn scarf he is holding in his bony hands, a few blue tears fall from Sans’ eye sockets which are still missing the usual white lights in them, even his usual smile has disappeared. Feeling as though he needs to be comforted I get up and stumble over to him, about to wrap my arms around him when suddenly his eye flares up blue and grabs a hold of my soul so I cannot move. I let out a gasp of shock and attempt to struggle from his hold on me but seeing his face made me stop. His left eye was flaring a bright blue along with his hand he is using to keep a hold on my soul, his smile is gone to be replaced by an angry frown as he glares into my eyes. My attempts to move my hands to make the words is not working either, I cannot move at all, through his magic I can feel all his pain and anger, all directed at me.

_I didn’t do anything! Papyrus was my friend!_

Desperately I try to sign my thoughts to him but his hold on my delicate soul simply tightens.

“What did you do?” He growls in an angry tone.

Trying to shake my head isn’t possible either, the best I can manage is a slight head tilt. His tears continue running down his face, he looks terrifying when he is angry, finally his magic dissipates, letting me fall to my knees and catch myself with my hands on the floor. I look up at him but find he has also fallen to his knees, sobbing into Papyrus’ scarf as he presses it to his face. Carefully I move closer and hug him, hoping my presence is comforting rather than painful as he must remember the previous time line. Eventually his sobbing ceases and he lets his hands and the scarf fall in his lap, one of his arms wraps around me to pull me closer. He presses his face into my neck as he is still calming down, his body still trembling with the loss of his brother and the pain resonating through him strongly. I stay quiet and simply hold him, glad to feel he isn’t trembling or sobbing anymore although his tears continue to make my jumper wet on my shoulder, but I don’t mind.

_I’m sorry, Sans..._

He pulls back a bit and I do too, his pained face is covered in tears so I take a handkerchief from my pocket and gently wipe his face dry, his chuckle surprised me and I had to lean in close to hear what he mumbled.

“that was quite handy, sheriff...”

I smile a little bit, happy he can at least still crack a joke but feeling a great need to correct him so I tap him on the shoulder so he will look at me.

**You don’t pronounce it that way, silly.**

Sans just shrugs and looks back down at the scarf in his lap and squeezes it tightly with his hand. I hug him again, worried he will cry again, he hugs me tightly again and a little sniffle escapes him.

“papyrus... isn’t... coming... home...”

The tone of his voice and the way it cracks is heartbreaking for me to hear but all I can do is hug him tighter, at least he isn’t attacking me now. After what felt like a million years he finally lets me go and slowly gets to his feet, helping me up as well and placing me back on the couch.

“i have to go do something... you stay here and rest...”

I start to sign my protests but he grabs my hands in both of his and shakes his head a little, there is nothing I can say or do which will keep him from leaving the house without taking me along, besides, I am still too weak to do anyone any good. Sans wraps the scarf around his neck and pulls up his hoodie, the hooded bit is actually grey rather than blue like the rest. He pats the top of my head and holds up his other hand, ready to click them.

“see ya, kid.” He said, filled with sorrow.

Before I could react or do anything other than raise my hands to sign he has taken a step back and clicked his fingers, disappearing in an instant right before my eyes. The house is empty once more, rather than cozy and happy it now felt cold and sorrowful. I get up, feeling the need to follow Sans despite him clearly not wanting me to, my legs still ache from my fall from the beginning, but honestly my whole body is aching. My soul aches the most though for the loss of Papyrus, an amazing friend and brother. I know exactly where Sans is going and it will not end well, resets and saves aren’t the same as before Chara split from me, she has not died yet and neither have I so we cannot be sure exactly what will happen if she does die but I am not too thrilled to find out. In the kitchen I find some monster medicine and some monster candy, remembering their great healing effect on humans in a previous time line. They are actually meant for HP and soul mending but perhaps it has some effect on physical wounds as well, I definitely feel better after having some and am able to move my legs and arms better too. Sans probably did not want to give me any for fear of having a bad reaction to it, he of course does not remember every single detail of the previous time lines, but I do, despite wishing I did not at times. A few painful memories flit by but I quickly dismiss them, reminding myself that it was all Chara, not me, who caused all that pain and grief among the monsters of the Underground. Once outside the skeleton house I make my way down the familiar path that will lead out of Snowdin, through Waterfall, through Hotland, through the Core and finally, into the castle and the barrier keeping monsters from exiting.

~

I am standing in the elevator that goes up to the castle and find myself wondering where all the other monsters of the Underground have gone, I have gotten into the encounter screen a couple times but no one came. As I am pondering this the elevator reaches the floor I need to get off at, however, being as distracted as I am I do not notice the bundle which is obstructing my path. I end up tripping over it and landing on the floor just beyond it, scraping my knee on the concrete floor causing me to hiss under my breath.

_Typical clumsy m-_

Before I can finish my thought I feel my hands burning, once I look down I see I have landed in a pile of monster dust, I quickly get up brushing the dust off of my hands and knees, the burning lessens but since I cannot get all the dust particles off me it continues to sting. I look over at what I tripped over and my heart sinks and then suddenly starts pulsing with immense pain at the sight before me. What I have burned myself on isn’t just any monster’s dust, it is Sans’ dust.

_Sans..._

Tears overflow my eyes as I fall to my knees beside the bundle I had tripped over, the bundle being Sans’ jacket and Papyrus’ scarf, I clutch the jacket and scarf to myself as I softly cry at the loss of yet another friend. My cries and sobbing getting heavier and louder as I cry for every single monster that has been dusted in the underground. Something I was unable to do while Chara had been in control. A feeling within me starts building, having been awakened from the huge sadness, it fills my entire being as I slip on Sans’ jacket and tie Papyrus’ scarf around my neck. I finally look up, anger written all over my face, intent on getting revenge for my friends. I get to my feet, feeling no pain anymore and I whip the scarf over my shoulder after pulling the hood up over my head. I clench my fists and glare at the wall, noticing something laying there in the shadows, I go over and pick it up. It is a bone, about the size of a large knife, it has been sharpened though, making it a great weapon. Turning it over in my hand and then gripping the smooth bone tightly, the feeling grows more within me and my soul thrums with sadness but also with...

_Determination._

Turning around, feeling determined for the first time since Chara split from me, I make my way down the long hallway towards judgement hall, knowing that Chara cannot have gone very far yet. Something cold surrounds both my eyes as I can see some kind of blue flame at the edges of my vision.

_I won’t let you down, Sans, I will stop her and give everyone justice._

The bone in my hand has started glowing with a blue magic now as well as I grip it even tighter, still keeping a steady pace going down the hallway, intent on facing Chara sooner rather than later and make her pay for what she has done to my friends.

_I am filled with determination._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel determined to write another chapter! (but it'll be a little slower as I use at least a full day to plan and write each chapter and my exams are coming up, this limits my time quite a bit.)


	9. Roar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The roar of the gaster blasters.

Frisk’s POV

I make me way through judgment hall, knowing Chara must have gone back to each location of the underground to make sure she didn’t miss out on dusting any monsters. Not knowing her current location makes it hard for me to find her though so I might just as well stay here and wait for her as Sans was planning on doing. He met her too soon and was unprepared. I remember the pile of dust I fell in by the elevator after tripping over his jacket and sigh, knowing Chara must have gotten him from behind. Sans didn’t even get to cause one death in this timeline. No monster did, I would feel it if Chara had died. I clench the edge of Sans’ jacket in my hand as I twirl the bone weapon I found in the other, tossing it up and catching it a few times as I slowly make my way through the golden corridor. Until I reach the middle, where I would have met Sans to be judged.

It feels empty, lonely and wrong. I lower my head and pull the hood further down as I take my place where Sans stood in the previous timelines. Turning around so I can face the door Chara will come through, I realize how peaceful it actually is here, and quiet except for my thumping heart in my chest and the birds singing outside. I lean against one of the pillars and shove my right hand in the pocket, something is in here. I grab it and pull it out, a small smile tugs at the corners of my mouth as I see the little red packets of ketchup sitting in my hand as well as a crumpled and faded picture of him and Papyrus outside their house. The house looks very new, and it has a SOLD sign in the window, Papyrus and Sans both look a bit younger, Sans especially looks happier. The blue magic is fading a bit now that I am calming down. More curious about the items in Sans’ pockets I decide to sit down with my back against the pillar and have a look.

_I wonder what treasures I will find in._

I take more things from the right pocket first but it seems to just be more packets of ketchup, nothing really of interest. To check the other pocket I have to put the bone down, which I am reluctant to do but curiosity gets the better of me. I place the bone down beside me, within my reach, and delve my left hand into the pocket. With a laugh I pull out the small whoopee cushion first which makes a fart sound as I squeeze it. Next I grab onto something cold and metallic, I jolt and quickly pull my hand out.

_SANS! Why!_

I laugh and pull out the shocking device more carefully this time.

_He always carried around his pranks with him. Don’t know what I was expecting._

My smile falters as I think about what I was actually expecting; my mind replays the various memories when I met him along the way in the Underground. At the bridge where he pranked me with his hand shake, hiding behind the lamp, going through the puzzles his brother had made. Sans didn’t protect me from other monsters during the journey much but he certainly made sure I had fun. Tears have started forming as I remember his astonished face when I had 30 hotdogs stacked on my head. I laugh a bit, letting the tears roll down my cheeks as I remember his laughing face when he told a pun which annoyed Papyrus.

_What was I expecting...? Sans... Papyrus..._

I wipe the tears away and grip the scarf that belonged to the tall skeleton. In an attempt to not cry again I clench my teeth, but it’s no use. I had friends here, good friends and she took them away. TWICE! Once using my own body as her own and now, taking advantage of her “freedom” from me.

_We’ll see how much freedom you have once you face me._

Before I get up, I put Sans’ things back in his pockets, but then a phone starts vibrating in my pocket. Frowning, I take it out of my pocket and stare at the flip phone, the caller ID won’t show unless I flip it open. Yeah, it’s one of those old ones.

_But, everyone is... gone?_

I open it and my breath catches in my throat as I see the caller ID.

_Mom!_

Without a second thought I press the green button and hold it to my ear, I try to open my mouth to speak but my throat is all knotted up, besides, speaking isn’t my strong suite any longer.

“Hello, my child.” A mocking impersonation of Toriel travels through the phone.

_Chara!_

“What? Got nothing to say to your dear mother?”

Her voice sounds more ghastly and corrupted than it had before. I strain my voice, knowing it is the remnants of Chara’s voice which she had used.

“Why? How?”

Chara’s laughter makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and sends chills down my spine. There is no way that this... creature was taken in by the royal family to be taken care of as their own. Asriel, Asgore and Toriel. They’d never help someone like that. Then again... Chara was the first human to fall. They had no experience with a human child turning out so awful. Nurture is said to have the upper hand anyway, the way the child is brought up will affect how they turn out no matter where they come from, in other words, nature versus nurture.

“Are you sure those are the right questions, Frisk?” She asks sarcastically.

I clench my teeth and tremble a bit, still sitting on the floor with my back against the pole. My knees pulled up to my chest, my arm holding my bone weapon wrapped around them. It has become an instinct, it is how I would sit in my mind when Chara had control and also the way I sat in my nightmares.

“Well, I have finished here. You are the last one left. Ciao!” Her tone is way too happy and perky.

The phone clicks as Chara ends the call; I sit frozen, listening to the dull, continuous beep sound from the phone. I get up once I hear the lift ding and close the flip phone, stuffing it in Sans’ ketchup pocket.

_She must have waited with calling until she was almost here..._

I get up, placing the bone in my belt, not putting my jumper over it but rather leaving it only slightly hidden by Sans’ jacket for easy reach. Shoving my hands in the pockets of the jacket, feeling Sans’ things in them fills me with determination. I lower my head and wait.

Soon enough I hear the echo of footsteps making their way towards me, my eyes are fixated on the golden floor and my brown hiking boots. The footsteps stop, I close my eyes and raise my head. Before opening them I take a deep breath.

_Here we go._

I open my eyes. Blue eyes meet red eyes. Chara stands before me, grinning from ear to ear, and bandages covering her body wherever it is exposed, even her neck but not her face. Her jumper looks more like a crop top with long sleeves from where it has been ripped so many times for bandages. The brown blouse is hanging loosely from her form, the collar is wrinkled. She looks different from what I expected. Worn down, tired, broken but also creepy once you reach her face. I grin at her, and rather than giving her the satisfaction of hearing her own voice travel through my mouth again, I pull my hands from my pockets and start signing to her.

**Hey there, freak. You are looking tired.**

The smile she is wearing doesn’t even falter, but red magic surrounds both her eyes and she spins her knife in her hand, the one which I can actually see her fingers of still.

_That’s new._

**Care to tell me what happened to you?**

“Oh, do-0 yo-0u ca4re abo0ut me, Fri1sk?” She says in her new glitch way.

She even sounds broken, perhaps the lack of resets aren’t good for her. I ponder the various options but get snapped back to attention when she starts laughing.

“Why such a4 seri1o0us fa4ce? Let’s fi1ght!” She lunges for me with her knife.

I dodge a little late so her knife tears the shoulder of Sans’ jacket, the force of it causes the hood to fall back as well, my hair and the scarf flowing free now. Standing by a pillar now on either side of the room, the light coming through the window outlines me, my shadow falling on Chara. She stares at me for a while, then smirks.

“So0. Yo0u 4are fully yo0urself, hu-h? Ho0w i1s your memo0ry?”

Unsure what memory she speaks of I decide to think back to when I fell but before I can even go as far back as how I fell down, a pounding headache starts at the temples of my head. I quickly pull away from the memory and glare at Chara who, somehow, has an even wider smile.

“Heada4che?”

Before she can move, my eyes flare with blue magic, surprising Chara. I send bones that appear out of nowhere at her by waving my hand. She dodges them easily, none hitting her and the blue bones phasing right through her. Panting, I let my hand drop, the bones stop appearing. Chara’s eyes flicker slightly as she slashes her knife, sending red magic slashes straight at me from all sides. Thanks to battling monsters in 3 different timelines, I am able to dodge them quite easily. Ducking when the slash is heading for my face and sidestepping as it heads for my right. I grin, hoping to be able to keep this up and that Chara will tire out.

Glancing over at her, I see that she is busy catching her breath as I had before as well. She catches me looking and glares at me, filled with hatred.

**What?**

She snarls and comes at me again; just as she brings down her knife I take out my bone. The blades clash together with a loud ringing sound that echoes through the bright hallway. Once again, Chara looks surprised. I bring my other hand out of my pocket, clench it into a fist and quickly bring it crashing into her stomach. Chara goes flying back, remnants of blue magic are on her brown blouse that cover her stomach. I smirk and kick away the knife she had dropped.

_Prepare for the end, Chara._

Chara coughs and gets up, the red magic in her eyes brighter than ever, both our souls are on display. Hers glowing red, mine shining blue.

“No0t fa4ir, Fri1sk!”

She leaps at me, but this time I am ready for her, just before she lands on the ground I bring the sharpened bone forward, narrowly missing her soul but going straight through her chest. Her eyes narrow at me as it dawns on her what has happened, her hand trembles as she places it over mine holding the bone up which she is impaled on now. There is no blood, no dust. Just her frowning face right in front of mine, nose to nose. She could bite me if she really wanted to.

“Yo0u… m-mi1ssed…”

I place my hand on her shoulder and shove her back as I pull the bone out, the hole in her chest stays for a second but then closes, I can see black threads moving, attaching to each other and then pulling the wound closed. Staring in shock, I forget to dodge as she uses her red magic to send me flinging back. The air gets knocked out of me as I land on the floor and slide several feet back, nearly all the way back to the entrance. Before I can get up, Chara is upon me again, placing the sharpened bone to my throat. Her laughter fills the air again, making my soul shiver.

“I1 wo0n’t mi1ss.” That horrifying smile dominates her face once more.

Chara places the tip of the bone on my soul, just as she is going to pierce it her soul turns blue and she gets flung back, I catch the bone she was holding and get up. A loud crash and a crack in the pillar is proof enough that she has been slammed into it by my magic. Though the site of her holding her head while she is down feels quite good too.

_The real battle is only just beginning._

Music fills the hall, a remix of all the battle music’s of my friends. I will not disappoint them. Chara will fall and we will have our happy ending. I raise the bone above my head, my hand and the bone are covered in the blue magic as I focus the magic at Chara. A soft growl behind me and then the charging sound of the blast being made ready indicating I am doing this correctly. I close one eye to focus better and with a roar a bright white blast is sent right at Chara. Who, unfortunately, rolls out of the way at the last second.

“You will become predictable too, Frisk!”

Red spears appear in her hands, just as Undyne had attempted to teach me but failed due to my lack of magic before. Or, perhaps, the lack of actually needing to use it. Chara sends them hurtling straight at me, the bright red colour hurting my eyes. I bring the bone up and focus my magic, creating a shield that is easy to swing about to block most of the shots. One spear makes it through and cuts my cheek, it had come from the side rather than straight on. By focusing on the spears coming at me I hadn’t noticed Chara taking a different angle to hit me with her shots. I drop down to the floor, just as predicted Chara takes the opportunity to attack but I bring my legs around to trip her up. Her face hits the marble floor hard, my smile hurts my cheeks as I notice the nose bleed she is having now, not registering in my mind that her blood is black rather than red.

I get up and go for a kick in her ribs, her arm wraps around my leg and I end up losing my balance, hitting the back of my head on the marble floor. Quickly I move my legs in a headlock so she should be struggling to breath, I grab her arm and quickly yank it back, expecting the bone to break but rather, her arm bends with the movement like its nothing. In shock I let go and leap back, knowing she should be in pain right now but her stab wound healed in an instance, her nose isn’t bleeding any longer, her arm simply snaps back into its normal shape. Seeing my shock seems to amuse Chara as she snickers softly. She has found her knife and is slashing at me without using her magic, making me take a step back or dodge to the side, she is going so fast. Side stepping she stumbles and I bring my hand down onto her back in a chop motion so she falls to the floor. Once she gets up I copy her slashing motion from before, using my sharpened bone. Chara moves slower than me when dodging and gets several cuts in her clothes and on her face. Even the minor cuts heal immediately, leaving small black lines in their places.

After hours of fighting, we evenly match each other despite Chara having a higher level. We are back where we started, cracks in the marble floor and the pillars too. Some of the windows have shattered as well. The floor covered in black and red blood from us both. Chara has healed but is breathing heavily; standing at the ready, her left hand is holding the knife and trembling. I am breathing heavily as well, holding the sharpened bone in both hands before me in case she decides to attack. We have both lost count of how many turns we have taken along with whose turn it is currently.

“Seems we a4re... evenly... matched... Yo0u and I.” Chara says quietly between breaths, her glitch voice not as bad when she speaks calmly.

I raise my right hand to sign something to her, hoping one hand is enough.

**Why are you using your left?**

Chara stares at me for a while and stays silent for so long I worry she didn’t understand; however, before I can sign again she speaks up.

“Why do you care?” She asks, sounding slightly bitter.

**I am curious.**

She smiles and looks around the wrecked golden hallway as she considers her answer.

“I’m dying.”

I stare at her in disbelief, then frown, feeling like that isn’t the truth. When I look back up, she has halved the distance between us and sent several magical knife slashes at me. Impossible to dodge at all, I raise my arms to protect me as best as I can. I hard blow to my side sends me sliding across the floor and landing on my knees. When I look over I see Flowey rooted in the floor where I stood, his yellow petals cut and vines wrapped around Chara’s waist, holding her up in the air.

I hold the bone up to Flowey, exhausted and sore from battling for so long but still ready to take on the monster flower if need be. He looks over at me with a sad face and right before my eyes he morphs into Asriel, the son of the king and queen of the underground. He isn’t the small child he was when Chara first fell nor when I first met him in my first timeline here. He has grown horns like his parents and he still wears brown jeans and the green and yellow striped jumper but he seems like a completely different monster now. Not the monster of Hyperdeath but the monster he would have become had it not been for Chara’s meddling.

“You have been fighting for so long, Frisk, I couldn’t bear to watch you fight alone any longer.”

He sounds sincere but, now that he isn’t a flower any longer, doesn’t that mean...

_Oh no._

My eyes flare up blue and I grab his new soul with my magic, Asriel looks panicked and a bit betrayed just before I send him sliding across the floor behind me just as Chara stabs at the empty air where Asriel once stood. Breathing is stinging my chest and the back of my throat as I get ready for another attack. I hear Asriel getting to his feet behind me but I cannot deal with him right now, instead, I send bones flying at Chara once more. She leaps and jumps and dodges like a pro to avoid them all, even the once I send up from the floor, out from the walls and down from the ceiling. Chara has a few close calls but dodges them all until she stands before me once again, the knife and bone clash once more, the ringing sound echoing through the hallway.

The sound of a power beam charging behind me seals my fate, Asriel has turned on me after all, chosen to back his best friend rather than the last fallen human. Not surprising, just, disappointing. I stare into Chara’s eyes that stare smugly back at me.

“Bye bye.” She whispers.

She pulls back at the same time as I do, and the beam blasts off with a roar, heading straight for me. I close my eyes, raising my arms to protect myself and brace for the worst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What would Frisk's gaster blaster look like do you guys think?


	10. Red magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fight continues but, what is this talk of memories?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very busy with exams but here's another chapter! Thank you for your patience!

Asriel’s POV

The power from the white beam building in my hands burns my fur, but I cannot stop for I know the power of my best friend. She will not survive this; I will not let her, not after what she has done to everyone! I grit my teeth as the beam brightens so much that it is blinding me. I am so focused on the beam that I realize too late the girls have jumped apart at the last moment! It is aimed straight at Frisk, and I cannot stop this power from escaping nor can I move easily. I am fixed to this spot.

“Frisk!!” I yell just as the beam blasts off from my hands with a building roar.

The white light fills the entire room and I have to squeeze my eyes shut to not blind myself permanently, the last I see is Chara’s haunting smile, black slightly deformed body where the bandages have loosened, blood red eyes watching Frisk with amusement. Frisk is raising her arms defensively with her eyes squeezes shut, ready for impending doom to fall upon her and perhaps a reset, which I personally used to have the control of.

Judgement hall may have been cold at one point and sent chills down everyone’s spines but now, the temperature is practically making the air itself burn. I scream as tears run down my face, realizing what I may have done.

_Frisk... Not Frisk!_

My power finally starts fading down to a simmer. I fall to my knees and open my eyes to see that where my beam had been directed the walls, ceilings, pillars and floor has been bleached pure white while the rest mostly kept its usual golden colour. I don’t dare to focus my gaze though as I drop my head and slump my shoulders which start shaking with oncoming sobs. The hall is silent, not a single sound, not even the birds outside are singing any longer. Slowly, I raise my head, no one is in the hall with me it seems. I get up and inspect the spot Frisk and Chara were.

_Nothing..._

 

Crouching, I touch the bleached white floor and look around. I breathe a sigh of relief as I notice the backs of the pillars have no bleached, meaning there were safe places for Frisk to dart to. However, that means that Chara could have survived that too.

“Frisk?”

My voice sounds hoarse and rather dry. I check behind the pillars but don’t find either of them, frowning I look around the hall once more. The Save star is burning brightly by the entrance to the hall, when suddenly there is a golden flash, the golden star increases in size and both Frisk and Chara fall out of it. This was not a reset or a ‘try again’. This was something new. Neither of the girls are moving, Chara is lacking the worn out bandages so she looks more like a black gooey mess with some distinct shapes to her form. I run down the hall and reach them both pretty quick. Without a single thought I lift Frisk into my lap, with an arm around her so I can attempt to wake her by patting her cheek lightly with my free hand. It just felt right to grab Frisk. More so than to help Chara.

“Frisk? Wake up.”

Frisk opens her eyes and for a moment I panic as I think I see deep red eyes but the colour quickly fades to blue. It must have been a trick of the light or perhaps her soul showing through, seeing as the eyes are the windows to the soul. She groans softly and puts her hand on her head like she has a headache, doing this as slow as she is I expect her limbs must feel rather heavy as well. A split second later her eyes widen in fear and she quickly gets out of my arms and gets up, leaving me still sitting on my knees. I don’t move in case she panics again. The hoodie and scarf do rather suit her despite them being just a tad too big for her I realize. Frisk is waving her hand in my direction, attempting to get my attention. As soon as she has it she starts moving her hands. Sign language.

**You attacked me!**

_Right, the real Frisk cannot speak without Chara._

“I did not mean to attack you, I was aiming for Chara but then you both jumped apart and I ended up aiming at you. The beam would have been too big for you to avoid even if I had aimed at Chara.” I explain as best as I can while getting to my feet.

Frisk, however, does not look convinced by my story. I sigh and look over at the golden star, then at Chara and then back at Frisk.

“What happened?”

Frisk looks confused but then sees the entrance to judgement hall and something clicks. She didn’t know until now that we were all at the beginning of the hall again rather than at the end.

**I don’t know. There was a golden light right after the room got bright with the white beam light, I felt like I was pulled through something. My eyes were shut though and I did not want to open them.**

That is rather odd. I place my hand against my chin thoughtfully and lean my elbow in my other hand for support as I ponder this information. Before I can share my thoughts with Frisk we are rudely interrupted by Chara’s static groan, indicating she has woken up. Frisk’s eyes light up with Sans’ usual magic and I quickly turn around to face Chara. Just as I turn I see Chara’s knife already coming for me not giving me enough time to react to defend myself or even dodge, but then that horrible magic hold on my new soul returns, turning my soul blue and yanking me back, causing me to slide across the floor and stop next to Frisk. Chara’s knife slices through the air where I was standing just a moment ago. She looks furious but rather then get mad she laughs crazily as she charges at us, slashing the knife erratically all around, impossible to dodge every single one but somehow Frisk has gotten me out of harms reach while she dodges each attack as if she anticipated it. To my horror, Frisk slips and Chara’s knife hits home. Chara pauses and for a split second looks confused as to what has happened as she sees her knife stuck in Frisk’s bright red soul, which is now flickering.

_No... Please no... We cannot lose..._

I see Frisk’s HP drop almost to 0 points. Only one point left. Frisk lashes out with her bone weapon, getting Chara to back off with her knife. To my surprise Frisk actually uses Chara’s voice to shout at me.

“Get the rest of the souls! If all else fails you must not fail! Go Asriel!”

I hesitate but before I can protest Frisk turns her gaze to me for a split second, her magic no longer blue but bright red, just like her own soul and the same colour as Chara’s magic. Without a second thought I run to the storage room of the souls, hearing the battle continue behind me. I reach the storage room out of breath, cursing myself softly for not taking all the souls straight away. I remove the lids of the souls one by one, absorbing them as they drift out of their containers. I feel my current soul increasing in strength. My body changes to the power building within me, my eyes becoming more demon like as those human books depicted and my horns growing larger. I look in the mirror to the side, seeing the drastic change of features, same as the form I took in a previous time line when Frisk was in control. I look down the hallway leading back to judgement hall, just 1 more soul and I can break the barrier or I can leave the underground right now. I frown as I come to the realization that it is completely silent.

_The battle! Frisk!_

In a flash I am back in judgement hall, ready to battle Chara if Frisk has failed. Much to my surprise both Chara and Frisk have dropped their weapons as they stands opposite each other in the middle of judgement hall. Above Frisk there hovers a Gaster Blaster much like Sans’ except with horns like a goat and red eyes rather than blue, but it fades before I can have a better look at it. Looking around the hall I see the devastation of the battle imbedded in the marble and rock of the hallway. Several cracks and scratches are littering the pillars around the hall where either Chara or Frisk has been smashed into or their weapons sliced along when missing their mark. The floor and wall where I unleashed my magic is still bleached bright white, which is quite striking compared to the golden colour of the rest of Judgement hall. Blood and black stuff is littered around on the floors and walls as well, certainly not giving the hall a better look than I would have liked. Frisk certainly matches Chara in battle. I look back over at the fighters, they are both breathing heavily.

“Wh4at are you wa1iting for, F-Fr1isk?” Chara manages to get out between gulps of air.

Frisk is still catching her breath, her knees bent with her hands resting on her thighs. Chara is watching her as she catches her breath as well standing the same way Frisk is, waiting for a reply. The blackness that seems to nearly have taken over Chara’s entire body drips from her arms and neck onto the jumper that used to match mine and onto the floor as well.

_So that is where the blackness came from..._

Buttons shine in front of Frisk as she can make a choice between Fight, Act, Item and Mercy. The buttons seem rather glitched and if I were her I would not touch them no matter what. Frisk looks just as surprised at seeing the buttons as Chara does, but Chara’s eyes widen further as a trembling hand reaches for the Mercy button.

“You can’t “M3ercy” me...” Chara laughs softly.

Frisk’s hand does not move away from the Mercy button but proceeds to press it down, making it light up. The glitch from the Mercy button quickly jumps over onto Frisk, causing her whole body to glitch out. All the buttons fade away again, the glitch makes Frisk twitch but finally it fades and a laughter fills the hall.

“You F0O0OL!” Chara laughs in her usual crazy way.

I make my over to Frisk, worried about her wellbeing, not even Chara’s words stop me.

“You ca4nnot “Me3rcy” me3! E3ve3r!” Chara yells, her glitched voice getting worse.

What stops me from moving closer to Frisk is the look of pure joy on her face. Behind her there are another set of buttons fading in. Frisk signs to Chara.

**I may not be able to Save or Mercy you but I can set you free, Chara.**

The look of confusion on Chara’s face must have matched mine as Frisk laughs and disappears in a golden flash. I stand frozen to the spot, unsure what to do until I feel a hand take mine. Looking down I see it is Frisk smiling up at me. She certainly has grown up since the time she fell down here. We must be around the same age by now, or at least, the age I was when I turned into a flower. My aging stopped when I was a flower with having no soul and all.

“If you set me free, I may just as well give back your memories.” Chara whispers.

With the sudden change in behavior of Chara, Frisk must have done something in the split second that she was gone. The black stuff that had taken over Chara’s body, and even her eyes before, was now gone. She looks just as she did before she died from that sickness when we were still siblings and living in the castle with mom and dad. I smile, happy to see that my friend seems to have come back. Frisk looks confused at her statement.

“You told me all about your past and why you fell down here, Frisk, and asked me to remove your memories of that life. The only reason I did was so I could have easier control over you and now I wish to give you those memories back...” Chara attempts to explain to Frisk.

Frisk simply nods and holds her hand out to Chara. My best friend hesitantly takes her hand and looks up at me when I place my hand on her shoulder in comfort. This causes Chara’s eyes to well up with tears.

“I am sorry what I did to everyone. I hated humanity, not monsterity. I should not have let my anger and feelings of betrayal affect all the monsters of the underground.”

I simply nod; accepting her apology, mostly due to knowing Frisk can simply reset to bring everyone back. I remove my hand and let go of Frisk’s hand, feeling that this is private and I should not know of Frisk’s memories from the surface. I sit down by a pillar, far enough away that I will not be able to hear the girls very well but close enough in case Chara decides to harm Frisk.

 **Please tell me.** Frisk signs to Chara.

Chara grabs both of Frisks hands and says something about showing Frisk rather than telling. They both close their eyes and red magic surrounds them both like a twister, making their hair and clothes ruffle around wildly. Once their eyes open, they are filled with red magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hm. Will Frisk's headaches be fixed when she thinks about her past or will she beg to forget again?


	11. Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took such a long time to complete but I wanted to get it just right. The way it makes the reader feel and all.

Frisk POV

I slowly open my eyes, feeling like I am comfortably wrapped in blankets in a lovely soft bed; the feeling of comfort doesn’t pass even when I realize that red magic is covering me from head to toe. Chara is standing beside me, holding my hand with hers. Around us there is complete and utter darkness, like the void, except that the darkness isn’t the deepest of black but it is the darkest of red you can get before transitioning to black. In other words, blood red. Strangely, I do not feel a sense of discomfort, not until Chara pulls me towards a white light which turns out to look like a TV screen.

“Your imagination sure is interesting, Frisk.” Chara says.

I look at her in confusion, then it hits me.

_Ofcourse, we must be inside my head in a way._

“That is correct.” Chara answers my thought as though I had said it out loud.

The lovely warmth surrounding me chills as we watch the screen, which I can only assume to be a memory. From my perspective the scene plays out.

~Memory 1~

I run to my father’s office and carefully push open the door, hoping to simply check he isn’t busy and I won’t disturb him with my presence. Clutching the drawing to my chest I slowly make my way over to his desk where he is sitting, his back hunched over a pile of papers that seems to constantly be littering the desk and most other surfaces in this room. I know better than to touch them, that’s for sure. Once I reach his desk I try to get his attention by poking his arm, he doesn’t react so I poke him again.

_Come on, dad, I want you to see my drawing for you!_

Poking doesn’t seem to function so I give his arm a shake. His first reaction is to give me a harsh shove against my chest, causing me to fall over backwards and land on my butt. With a pout I get back up and push and pull at his arm, desperate for attention. This time he sits up and glares at me, his eyes glassed over and his hair a mess. As he speaks I can smell the alcohol on his breath and the slurred speech does not particularly help either.

“Whatss syou want?” He says rather loudly and with difficulty.

I hold up the drawing to him, hoping to get some kind of praise or at least a proud look at how much I have improved from scribbles. It’s a drawing of a landscape with 3 people, the sky and sun in the corner of the paper with a few clouds and lots of flowers everywhere. My father takes it from my hands clumsily and looks it over. Standing on my toes I attempt to see exactly what he is looking at until he makes the usual disappointed scoffing sound and gestures at the drawing with his hand.

“This is it?”

 **Dad don’t like?** I sign to him as I stop standing on my toes.

He shakes his head which crushes a little part of me. Next, he crumples up the drawing and aims for the trash, getting it in with a throw and he yells.

“GOAL!!!”

Next he slumps back onto the table, hiccupped laughter over taking him as I turn and run out of the office, into my own room. Feeling hurt I hug my pillow tightly and cry into it in order to muffle my cries.

~end Memory 1~

I stare at the blank screen for a moment which rewinds and replays the same lost memory again, the pain of the shove from my own father hurt more than just my chest. It actually hurt my heart that he was being so insensitive and thoughtless about what he had done. I sign sadly more to myself than to Chara.

**I don’t understand.**

“Your life at home wasn’t the best, Frisk. At least not from what you told me and asked me to erase.”

I look down from the screen to my hands but Chara lifts my face up by the chin to have me look at her, her face was a little blurry due to the accumulating tears in my eyes making it hard to see.

“Hey now. You wanted your memories back, so stay strong. Alright?”

Chara says this in a much tender tone than I would have expected of her, she uses her sleeve to wipe away the tear tracks from my cheeks and my eyes. I nod and smile at her kindness before getting pulled along by her to the next blank screen which just restarted.

~Memory 2~

I make my way into the cemetery, holding a batch of wild flowers I picked earlier on my way from school. The batch is mostly made up of buttercup flowers since they are the flowers that are the most common around town. I’m 10 years old and it has been a week since last time I visited the grave of my mother, the last flowers have probably withered by now. I walk along the gravel path; making my way to my mother doesn’t take much thinking as I automatically find myself there. I look down at the grey tombstone, the name and dates golden lettering faded by now, unsurprisingly the buttercup batch from last week in the little glass cup on top of the gravestone have dried up. Without a second thought I take the glass and make my way over to the church where there is a faucet to fill up the cup with water, the dried flowers go in the green trash bin to be made into dirt. Not sure how it works but I may just as well contribute to the gardeners efforts into maintaining this place, after all, that is what mom would have liked me to do. Once I am back at the gravestone I place the cup on top again, with the new bright yellow buttercups in it, and sit down in the grass.

_Hey mom. How are you?_

Carefully, as part of my ‘ritual’, I trace my fingers over the letters of “beloved mother” because that is the truth. I do love my mother despite not seeing her much nor remembering her since it happened when I was rather young. With a sigh I proceed to form the conversation we would have had, had she still been alive, in my head.

_I haven’t had such a good day. The bullies called me names again and mocked my inability to speak but, even if I could, I wouldn’t want to speak. Not to them anyway. I would have liked to tell you and dad that I loved you but-_

My thought, and the conversation, get cut off as a bucket full of water gets dumped on my head. In an attempt to cover myself I raise my arms above my head and squeeze my eyes shut. The water is freezing cold and has completely soaked through all my clothes; I didn’t wear a jacket today because it was a nice sunny day. Shivering I look around for the culprit, down the gravel path I see a group of boys running off, one of them holding a bucket and all of them laughing as if it was the funniest thing in the world to drench a  grieving girl at her mother’s grave.

_What did I ever do to them?_

Sadly I get up and look down at the gravestone one more time as I stoop down to pick up my school bag, which was luckily not drenched.

_Sorry, mom, I don’t mean to cut the conversation short. See you next week. Alright?_

Knowing that the bullies will be waiting for me at the cemetery gate I use my back route short cut back home which is simply just a part in the fencing surrounding the church and cemetery which has been slightly bent. The hole created thanks to the bent fence is big enough for me to fit through without too much effort other than getting my jacket or jumper snagged once in a while. It didn’t matter much though, mostly because my clothes are old and worn out anyway, most of them being second hand from the marked.

~end Memory 2~

I start remembering more and more, these key memories unlocking the rest. The suddenness of it makes my head pound, forcing me down onto my knees as I clutch my head. My chest starts aching as I remember my mother, how she died and her love for me holding the family together, my dad, who lost it all when we lost mom, and lastly my entire life up on the surface until the age of 15.

_My life was a joke... Mom died, dad didn’t care, bullies were ruthless, no one wanted to be my friend._

Chara places her hand on my back in order to sooth me as I shake a bit.

“It’s alright, Frisk. I understand if this is too much for you right now.”

My headache starts easing up but the memories start fading again too, as quick as I can I grab Chara’s hand which is glowing with red magic and shake my head hard.

**I need to remember.**

She simply smiles and nods in understanding, pulling away her hand and letting the memories continue to flood my entire being.

The pain clenches my heart and soul in a tight grip, so hard I struggle to breath. Fearing my soul is injured I let it come out from my chest and hover in my cupped hands, much to my relief my soul is still intact despite the depleted HP from the battle against Chara earlier. Without warning I get yanked from this strange place only to find myself falling into Asriel’s arms, my face in his chest.

_Asriel!_

I stare up at him bewildered before looking back at the spot me and Chara were standing. A horrid laugh, much like Flowey’s demonic laugh fills the room and for a split second I fear that Asriel is not fully Asriel any longer but the laugh did not emanate from him. Chara steps forward from the red mist which had accumulated in the spot we were standing while I received my memories of the surface once again.

“Fool... You cannot save me!” Chara says, her mouth twisted into that murderous grin.

Looking her over I notice the blackness which had taken over most of her body has pretty much disappeared along with the glitched voice she had earlier. Asriel looks down at me and simply states.

“You are an idiot to show her your soul.”

My eyes widen in shock and quickly I place my hand on my chest, glad to feel my soul is still intact. Looking over at Chara I attempt to understand how she could have recovered so much.

“Thank you for your determination, those memories of yours made you radiate in determination which I happily soaked up!” Chara laughs mockingly.

I push away from Asriel and glare at Chara, she is merrily a human in the underground and my determination easily outweighs her measly determination. Before I can think much of it I grab Asriel’s hand and bring up the reset screen, somehow Asriel seems to be able to see it now too, after all, he used to have this skill too.

“Frisk. Do what you have to do. Any time line is better than this, even as a flower.”

Asriel’s trust in me, and the fact that he squeezes my hand tighter as my hand hovers over the reset button, fills me with DETERMINATION.

Without another word from Chara I press the button and everything goes dark, the story, my only memory from before I fell, about the history of monsters and humanity flashes before me. Oddly enough though, as I open my eyes, I am not in a bed of buttercups at the bottom of a drop in a cave which I later found out to be the underground. Rather, I am beside the hole on the surface, looking down into the darkness, unable to see anything. Memories flood my mind as I attempt to understand why I am here. I came here because my life is not what I expected it to be. I look down at my hands and realize quite rapidly that I am not the girl who fell for the first time. Replaying this ‘game’ so many times has made me physically and mentally older but no one in the underground would have noticed as it is the first time they meet me each time I replay the ‘game’ I enjoyed so much the first time round.

_I could just turn around, go back into town and finally live on my own._

I look back at the path that I had taken to get here in the first place while looking for the suitable spot. Rubbing my arm, I feel unsure about whether I should turn back or continue with my original plan. The hole into the underground is pitch dark and fills me with dread as I look down into it but at the same time it fills me with determination to see my friends once more.

_What should I do?_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I succeed? How did this chapter make you feel? What will Frisk choose?


	12. Choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did Frisk jump? Is Asriel a flower? What about Chara?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to finally be published but I am on holiday and did not get a reliable internet connection until now!

Asriel POV

I look down at all the buttercup flowers blossoming in the slight sun light filtering in from a hole far above. This is the flower bed which breaks Frisk’s fall, if she does at all. She has taken far longer than usual. Looking around the dreary room I wonder how I have been able to stay here for so long without company, the only bit of colour are these flowers, and they only bring back harsh memories. The only thing keeping me here right now is the possibility of Frisk falling down again, and rather than letting her hit the bed of flowers I will catch her. However...

_Did she choose to stay on the surface, after all? Can she make that choice?_

I look up to where the light filters through the large hole in the ceiling of the underground, but to my dismay I do not see Frisk falling down. Her falling shape blocking out what little natural sun light comes down into the underground. I shake my head and force away the tears of having lost another friend. It hurts more this time though. Rather than death and having mental issues causing the loss of my best friend, I lose Frisk because it is her choice she has made consciously. My head snaps back up as I come to realize something.

_Perhaps Frisk doesn’t know that I am here, waiting for her._

I cup my appendages around my mouth and shout her name, it simply echoes off the walls and I cannot be sure my voice even reaches all the way up to the surface like this. Once my voice stops echoing the sense of how quiet it is here hits me, making me feel more alone than I ever have. Even when I woke up as a flower and called for help, but nobody came...

“I can’t stay here much longer, Frisk. Please come soon, if you come at all.”

I raise my hopeful gaze up to the hole one more time, feeling my heart sink as there is no scream, no shadow, meaning that there is no Frisk. I turn away and look down the hallway that leads into the ruins, but just as I think of moving on a piece of rock falls down just behind me, crushing one of the buttercups. In an instant I have turned around and sprout vines in order to catch Frisk from falling to her death or harming herself, forcing yet another reset where I may not be of sound mind. If another reset were to happen now, I may attack her for her soul again. My vines don’t make their way quick enough out of the hard rocky ground where they rest to catch Frisk, much to my dismay; all I can do is watch her plummet from up above and crash head first into the golden patch of buttercups. My vines lift her up carefully, her head is bleeding and she is not opening her eyes. A shiver passes down my stem as I get this cold sensation in the room, looking around I don’t see anything so I shrug it off and focus on Frisk again, laying her down on the flower patch closer to me.

“Frisk? Frisk, wake up. I’m sorry I didn’t catch you.” I hate my voice in the flower state but I cannot just stay silent as her HP is depleting so rapidly.

I press my forehead against hers in an attempt to share some of my HP with her but it doesn’t seem to work. The same chill passes down my stem, angrily I spin around, glaring around the cave with my scary face. Still, nothing seems to be here but before I can fully turn back to Frisk, an echoing glitched laugh makes my petals twitch. Quickly I raise the vines up and let thorns sprout along them, surrounding Frisk with them protectively. At the same time I hover the ‘friendliness pellets’ around too for a quick and easy attack if need be.

“Who is there?” I call, refusing to believe it is who I think it is.

The laughter starts again, closer this time, making me feel uneasy and even more protective of Frisk.

“Path3et1ic.”

Chara’s voice sounds even worse than it did in the previous time line. Still, I cannot see her. A dull knife appears out of nowhere and slashes one of my petals off as I am just a bit too slow to dodge the surprise attack. The laughter becomes deafening, making it hard to think over the sound and the throbbing pain on the side of my head. I send the pellets in the direction of where the knife came from, hoping to successfully hit Chara but no sound from her indicates whether I had succeeded or not. An instant later she comes out of the shadows, black goo dripping from her eyes and mouth but little red light orbs in the middle of the black mess indicating where her eyes are or used to be. She’s twirling a toy knife in her hands and is hovering slightly above the floor as if she is a ghost.

“Cha-“ She cuts me off by literally attacking me with the toy knife and then muttering to me.

“Pr0ot3ect1ing Fr1- Fr1isk? P4ath3etic!”

I dodge the attack by diving underground and popping up behind her again, sending pellets at her and then the vines in an attempt to grab her but the vines fail, simply passing through her. The laugh emitting from her mouth is horrifying as she notices she cannot be harmed.

“0oh 4Astr1iel! Y0ou cann0ot h4arm 4a gh0ost!” She giggles and heads straight for the wall of vines set up to protect frisk.

“NO!” I scream and send more pellets at her and vines, but it is no use.

She passes through the thorny vines easily and is about to go into Frisk’s body but just before that I pop up in front of her, her hand touches my face and just as her face turns into fear, Chara disappears. A power seems to be growing within in, unable to be contained within this buttercup flower body I somehow ended up in. I clutch my head with my leaves as the golden petals fall off my head, the heat within me feels like it is ripping me apart. Upon opening my eyes I can see that it is literally ripping me apart as I see that my stem has several rips in them with red magic glowing within. A scream echoes through the chamber, for a second I believe it to be Frisk’s but a second later I realize it is my own. My flower body rips apart with a bright red flash; the light of the magic fades slowly from red to white.

“What in the...”

I gasp as I see my hands, now the same claws as before I had become a flower. Without thinking I get up and run to a corner of the room where there is a puddle of water to see my reflection. It’s me. My own reflection. No longer a flower. Finally I am Asriel once more. I touch my face in disbelief, tracing the black lines with my claws. With sudden realization I take out my soul to have a look at it, it’s a red heart with a white outline, within the red heart I can see Chara smiling at me, my best friend. She is finally back to her old self, before she took to hating everyone and everything, when we still had fun. I smile back, tears welling up as I hug the soul close, making it return to my chest.

“Don’t worry, Chara, I’ll take care of your soul like you would have wanted me too before becoming such a megalomaniac. I love you, friend.” I whisper softly.

With a sigh I get back onto my feet, consciously this time, and stumble a little bit having to place my paw against the wall of the cave to steady myself. Looking back to the buttercup flower patch I see Frisk still laying there, unmoving, which makes me start worrying all over again and forget about my new form. Quickly I make my way back to Frisk, tripping over my own feet. I collapse in the flower patch and rather than being bothered by my own HP being decreased from the minor fall I gently cup Frisk’s cheeks and lift her head a little bit. Her HP is still not fully gone but she is still not waking up, my healing magic is not better than mom’s but I try anyway. White magic makes my claws glow as I focus on her face, the black of my eyes turn white as well as I use my magic to heal her wounds and bring her HP back up.

“Come on, Frisk.” I whisper as I continue healing her the best I can.”

To my relief her HP slowly starts to increase. Her injuries are far more widespread than I had thought, she must have taken a worse tumble than I thought. Her legs are broken, her skull is fractured and many cuts litter her hands, face and neck. After a few more minutes I let my magic fade and pick her up, moving to the wall closest to the buttercup patch. I settle with my back against the cool cave wall and settle her to sit on the ground between my legs, leaning her back and head back against me. I close my eyes to take a rest after using so much of my energy fighting off Chara, transforming and then healing Frisk. It feels like only a few moments have passed before I feel Frisk shift and I open my eyes to look at her looking at me.

“Howdy.” I say as per my usual greeting.

“It’s me, your best friend.” I add with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	13. Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is... different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so late! Please enjoy!

Frisk POV

I stare up at Asriel in confusion, seeing the real him rather than a flower greeting me as well as lying against him in his arms rather than in a bed of golden buttercups. Without thinking about it I have reached out to his face and places my hand on his cheek as I slowly turned around, not wanting to leave the warm comfort of his arms. To my surprise he does not flinch from my touch or even pull away, instead he leans into my hand and closes his eyes. A moment later he places his own hand over the top of mine on his cheek as he takes a deep breath.

“I thought you weren’t coming, Frisk…”

My heart aches softly as I hear the relief and lingering pain in his voice.

_I should not have hesitated…_

I try to pull my hands back to sign him a message but he won’t let me go, he pulls me into a tight hug, burying his face in my neck.

“Don’t apologize, Frisk, it’s ok.”

With a sigh of relief I return the tight embrace and close my eyes tight, willing the tears not to escape my eyes. After a few more moments he finally lets me go and I am able to sign to him.

**What happened?**

Asriel sighs and tells me what had happened just as I fell and I listen in disbelief for a good while, but then something clicks, two things actually.

**Wait. So you absorbed Chara’s soul?**

Asriel simply nods in reply; we are sitting opposite each other now with our legs crossed to sit more comfortably. He has his arms crossed while I have my hands free to sign my thoughts and questions to him.

**Chara had the toy knife with her once she came here and attacked?**

He nods again without much hesitation but then he frowns and opens his eyes to look at me to see if I came to the same conclusion he just came to. Quickly I get up and run down the hallway, Asriel not far behind. We both fear the worst as we reach the house in the ruins looking completely abandoned. I stop at the front door, not sure whether to knock or simply rush in but Asriel has other matters on his mind as he simply bolts in, practically knocking the door off its hinges.

“Mother?” Asriel asks as he makes his way to the living room first.

Not finding her there he rushes to the kitchen just as I have walked into the living room.

“Mother!?” Asriel’s voice becomes more desperate.

Once I reach the kitchen doorway Asriel is already running back through it, desperation and worry written all over his face, he bumps into me in his rush of leaving the kitchen.

“Forgive me.” He quickly says as he bolts out of the living room and back into the hallway.

I watch him go before turning to looking around the kitchen, it still feels warm and smells like freshly baked cinnamon butterscotch pie. Not seeing Toriel I make my way into the hallway, not as desperate to find her as Asriel is.

_She’s already dusted, Asriel..._

Clenching my fists to keep myself from signing the words I find the keys to unlock the chains blocking the stairway down to the hallway leading to the exit of the ruins and entrance of Snowdin and further into the Underground. Asriel is still making his way from room to room, holding out hope to find his dear mother.

“MOTHER!” Asriel cries out in desperation.

I winch as I hear him shout out for Toriel again and again while I unlock the chains and make my way down the stairway. I’m still holding out hope that Toriel may still be ok, despite my gut telling me that that is not true. At the bottom of the steps the place looks just like it has before, as I take a step forward I half expect Toriel to come down and tell me to go back upstairs and play. I smile at the thought of her telling a near adult like me to not play down here because of dust but the smile fades as she does not come after me as I take a few more steps. I look back but she really is not there, so I continue walking down the corridor until I hear the stairs creak as someone descends them. Turning around, I expect it to be Toriel but it’s actually Asriel making his way down, looking defeated.

“I could not find her. She is nowhere in the house.” He whispers once he has reached where I am standing.

I nod and place my hand on his arm in order to comfort him, he smiles weakly down at me so I smile back with sympathy. We make our way down the corridor together until we reach the large doors leading into Snowdin.

**Still no Toriel and no dust either. Maybe she went out into Snowdin.**

My signing seems to have given Asriel some hope of finding his mother.

“Thanks Frisk. Come on, let’s get this door open.”

He places his hands against the right hand door, ready to push it open and I place my hands on the left hand door. We both start pushing and slowly but surely the door creaks open; a gust of cold wind ruffles up my hair and Asriel’s fur. A smile tugs at both our mouths as we both feel the familiar coldness of Snowdin. Before we have even pushed the door fully open I grab Asriel’s hand and drag him with me into the snow and the cold. Asriel stops though and I am not strong enough to tug him along further so I turn to face him with a questioning look on my face.

“If we split up we can find her faster.” He says after a few seconds.

_That does make sense I suppose._

I nod and smile, trusting in Asriel to know where she would enjoy spending her time seeing as I dislike straying far from the path of the Underground.

**Meet you later on then?**

“Yeah, I’ll meet you at the castle.”

Asriel hugs me tight and kisses my cheek before he makes his way in a different direction than I usually take. I wave until I cannot see him any longer and then turn back to the path before me, seeing the sturdy branch lying across the path already. Humming softly I stroll down the path and jump on top of the branch in a futile attempt to break it for once but it doesn’t even budge so I step off and continue on my way.

*CRACK*

With a smile I look back at the broken branch, eagerly I rush towards the bridge but before I can step onto it I get frozen in place. Behind me I can hear footsteps in the snow coming closer. Just as I am not frozen in place any longer I spin around to face Sans.

“fris-“ He starts to speak.

Before he can even finish saying my name I am in his arms, crying softly into his shoulder as I hug him so tight. I smell ketchup and the scent of a burning fireplace on his jacket, which has become a rather soothing scent to me. The tears are just overflowing, blurring my vision so I simply keep my eyes closed as I hug the skeleton tightly. Sans seems to hesitate before hugging me back, wrapping his arms around me and simply letting me cry.

“it’s alright, kiddo, i’m here.” He whispers soothingly.

After a while my crying subsides but I still cling onto Sans like my life depends on it.

_He’s here, he’s not dead. Oh, I missed you Sans. I’m so so sorry._

Tears almost start running down my face again but before they can Sans pulls back to have a good look at me. He laughs softly and wipes away a few of my tears from the edges of my eyes with his bony fingers.

“i thought ladies didn’t cry.”

I laugh softly, tears still not fully subsided after all, and hug him again. Sans hugs me tighter than before, being wrapped up in his arms like this is warmer than I had expected. Then again, his magic keeps him warm so his joints don’t freeze him shut and prevent movement. It also keeps him from falling apart like any regular skeleton would without tendons, muscle, skin and the usual stuff holding me together. Smiling I nuzzle his neck and relax a little in his arms, overjoyed that I have my friend back.

~Later~

“SORRY HUMAN. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE NOT SEEN THIS LADY YOU CALL TORIEL ON MY PATROLS. WHAT DID YOU SAY SHE LOOKED LIKE AGAIN?” Papyrus asks while we sit at the dinner table eating his famous spaghetti.

 **She looks a bit like king Asgore and wears a purple dress.** I sign to him after quickly stuffing a fork full of spaghetti in my mouth.

Papyrus’s spaghetti has certainly improved drastically from all the previous time lines. He may even be one of the best cooks in the underground now, at least when it comes to spaghetti. As always, Sans seems to be snoozing in his seat rather than eating while me and Papyrus discuss how to find Toriel in all the underground seeing as there was no proof of her being dusted.

Once we have all finished our plates, except Sans who had only finished half, Papyrus tidies away the plates and starts cleaning the kitchen. Me and Sans leave the kitchen but not a second later Papyrus hollers after us.

“AND PICK UP YOUR SOCK, SANS! PLEASE WE HAVE A GUEST!”

Sans simply chuckles softly and shrugs. I smile at the usual brother banter I have heard between the skeleton brothers every time line I have gone through. In this time line, however, things seem to be happening slightly differently, I wonder why. We sit down on the couch, and Sans is clearly ignoring his brothers request by simply walking past the sock that sits in the middle of the floor for no apparent reason other than to bother the taller skeleton.

“heh. so, kid, why did it take you so long to get through the ruins and into snowdin? was starting to worry you were not coming at all, you know.” He asks while leaning back in the couch with his hands in his pockets and his eye sockets closed.

Shaking my head I nudge him until he opens his eyes and sign to him.

**You won’t know unless you look at me while I tell you, silly skeleton.**

“right. i can be such a bone-head sometimes.” Sans chuckles while I roll my eyes and hide a smile.

Once he stopped laughing at his very terrible skeleton related pun I start signing to him everything that has happened from the time I found his dust and his jacket by the elevator up until the point of meeting him at the bridge as I do every single time line. Sans watches my hands intently, hoping not to miss a single part of the story as he often will by simply dozing off. After I have finished my story and rub my sore hands, Sans simply sits there thinking to himself for a while. Sans looks up at me and struggles to find the words to say, but a slightly blush creeps over his cheek bones making me wonder what he is actually thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so terribly sorry about how late this chapter is coming out but I have been slightly busy with other things IRL and have simply not found time or insipration but now I have finally finished this chapter and cannot wait to continue onto the next chapter! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	14. Brotherly Banter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brothers being brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh I thought I had posted this chapter already! Enjoy!

Sans POV

My eye sockets meet Frisk’s eyes and my face slowly starts heating up, I can only assume that my cheek bones have gotten quite a blue tint by now as the kid has glanced down slightly in confusion.

_heh... typical..._

“hey kid, did all that really happen in the last time line? even using blue magic to avenge me and every other monster that megalomaniac had dusted?” I question, trying to draw attention away from my very visible blush.

Frisk nods, but I do not catch what she tries to sign to me as Papyrus comes back into the room and distracts me. At least this made my blush fade away.

“HUMAN, SANS, THERE WAS A...” Papyrus starts off but stops when he sees the sock still laying on the floor.

“nnnnnnNNNNEYYYY! SANS! PICK UP YOUR SOCK!” He hollers loudly while waving his fists in the air and looking like a complete idiot with googly eyes.

Chuckling I get off the couch and stand next to the sock.

“bro? what sock?” My smile only widening as his face turns ever so slightly orange with built up rage.

“THAT SOCK RIGHT THERE, SANS!” He says while pointing to the floor to my right.

“huh?” I look down at the sock in mock confusion. “this sock?” Pointing down at the sock on the floor.

“YES, SANS!” He says with even more annoyance and face palms. “IT IS THE ONLY SOCK WHICH BELONGS TO YOU ON THE ENTIRE LIVING ROOM FLOOR!”

“oh. that socks.” My grin has gotten so big that my eyes have half closed, trying to hold in laughter.

The kid, still sitting on the couch, starts laughing at the little show me and my brother are apparently putting on. As long as she is smiling, all is good.

“NNNNGGGGGHHH! SANSSSSS!” Papyrus yells loudly as he stamps his foot with his eyes shut like a child does when they are having a tantrum, his face even redder.

“alright, alright, no need to get so fired up.” I say, laughing a little.

Looking over at the kid as I bend down to pick up the sock I can see them practically crying, clutching their sides and laughing so hard it is silent and probably hurting their chest and sides and ribs.

“heh. is the kid alright?” I ask, hiding my laugh with a cough.

Papyrus stops his tantrum and quickly turns his attention to Frisk, the attention quickly turns to concern as the kid is practically coughing with laugher, unable to get any air.

“HUMAN!”

Papyrus rushes over to Frisk, I take this as a sign that the sock no longer matters and I leave it exactly where it has always been lying since the time it was placed there. I stand by the couch, hands in my pockets and watch Papyrus fussing over the laughing human.

“so, uh, they alright?”

The fussing only causes the kid to laugh harder and start to snort very unattractively, but I find this really cute. Making Frisk laugh fills me with joy, especially making her laugh so hard she becomes dizzy. I snicker softly and scratch my chin, my left eye closed as I watch.

“SANS! DON’T JUST STAND THERE! DO SOMETHING!” Papyrus shouts at me in desperation.

“hey, kid, think you can stop now so pap’s will stop fussing?” I lean over and pat the kids head.

She continues giggling and shaking with laughter for a bit before taking several deep breaths to calm down, finally hugging Papyrus as an apology for making him worry.

“THANK GOODNESS, HUMAN, YOU’RE ALRIGHT!” He exclaims as he hugs Frisk back.

“NOW, WHAT WAS I GOING TO SAY?” Papyrus looks thoughtful.

**You came out of the kitchen looking a little concerned.**

Frisk signs to Papyrus but he doesn’t seem to quite understand so I tell Papyrus what she said. Something seems to click with Papyrus.

“AHA! NOW I REMEMBER! THANK YOU, HUMAN.”

Papyrus clears his throat before continuing.

“UNDYNE CALLED. SHE SAID THERE HAD BEEN SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY OF SOMETHING NEW IN THE AREA WHICH HAS NOT BEEN SEEN BEFORE. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THINK IT IS ANOTHER HUMAN.” Papyrus speaks rather quickly as he is quite excited about this.

“that certainly is news worthy, don’t you think, kiddo?” I look over at the kid who laughs shortly at my rather awful pun.

“SANS! THIS IS NO TIME FOR YOUR JOKES! WE MUST GO OUT AND CAPTURE THIS HUMAN!” Papyrus exclaims as he points his gloved finger at me.

“we? bro, i am bone-tired. and it’s always a good time for a humorous joke. it certainly tickles the kids funny-bone.”

Frisk and I burst out laughing together at the jokes as well as Papyrus’s rather angry and exasperated face, as soon as it fades though Papyrus is back to talking about this new human.

“I SHALL GO OUT AND MEET WITH THIS NEW HUMAN AND I INTEND TO CAPTURE THEM OR AT LEAST BEFRIEND THEM. JUST LIKE I DID WITH YOU, HUMAN.” Papyrus smiles as he pats Frisk’s head.

“I AM OFF! KEEP AN EYE ON THE HUMAN, SANS!”

Papyrus leaps out of the window, luckily the window was open this time so I don’t have to change the glass again. Frisk’s smile fades though, as soon as Papyrus has left the house, my own smile falters a little too at seeing her smile fade but I quickly smile wider than before and plop down on the couch again next to her.

“that was quite a shattering turn of events.” I say, looking over at Frisk, hoping for another smile.

**Sans. That isn’t a human walking about outside. It is Asriel, he’s looking for his mother since she is missing from the house in the ruins.**

“that can’t be good. this asriel used to be that flower who would attack before we would get out of the underground, yes?”

Frisk nods and then she frowns more.

“what’s up, kiddo? something else bothering ya?”

**This timeline... It is very different from all the other’s I have gone through.**

The white light of my pupils disappear, leaving black hollows as I see her mention the timelines and how she has been through several so easily.

**Usually I can predict almost every step but everything is so very different in this timeline. I don’t understand why.**

Blue magic flickers in my left eye but I turn away before Frisk can see it. Once I have composed myself I slouch back in the couch and shrug nonchalantly.

“who knows, kid, perhaps it has to do with this chara person not sharing your body with ya.”

She shrugs and looks concerned.

“hey, if you worry about asriel, you shouldn’t, i am sure that papyrus will find him and bring him here. you did split up on purpose, am i right?”

Frisk nods and looks up at me, a small smile finally pulling at her lips. For a moment I stare at her lips, forgetting my words but I quickly shake my head and bring my right hand to rub the back of my skull.

“so, uh, it’s kinda the point that he will wander around like this while you follow the path.”

**Thank you for making me feel better, Sans.**

I chuckle and wink at her.

“no problem, kiddo.”

A weight seems to have been lifted from her shoulders as she yawns, realizing how tired she actually is and in the next moment I am laying on my back with my skull resting against the arm of the couch. My hand is supporting my skull a bit as I doze, my elbow up and against the couch and Frisk laying with her head resting on my sternum. The other hand is resting on her waist under the blanket that I have pulled up. She seems to be sleeping soundly so I carefully bonk my teeth against the top of her head since it’s the best I can do to give a kiss. Sighing I close my eyes and sleep with her, feeling finally at ease for the first time in a very long time. The last time everything seemed just perfect was before Frisk reset the timeline the first time, but that doesn’t matter. Now I have my Frisk back.

“sweatheart...” I mumble sleepily just as I doze off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know not much happened in this chapter but I do hope you did get a laugh out of imagining this scenario in your head. I certainly had a laugh writing it!


	15. Undyne Enters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally we get some more characters into the strory!

Undyne POV

I take my usual evening patrol for humans through the snowy biome of the underground, intent on walking from here all the way to the palace and then back home to Hotland to the house I have burned down many times before. Soft laughter bubbles out of my mouth as I remember the last cooking lesson with Papyrus when the house was nearly burned down again. Having a burned down house doesn’t bother me though seeing as I get to crash at Alphys’s lab, it’s like an extended sleepover party. Once I am upon the snowy hill with the snowman I look over the cold landscape, extended as far as the eye can see but eventually reaching the far walls of the underground. Attempting the destroy those walls in order to escape another way was futile, even getting one speck of dirt off the walls was impossible no matter what we tried to do. I grit my teeth and place my hand over the eyepatch covering my mangled eye on the left side of my face.

“We were fools to underestimate humans and their magic. It will not happen again. I shall find the seventh human so we may finally be free from the Underground and live on the surface along with the humans. The sacrifice must be made, even if most of them were simply children.”

Sighing, I realize I have practically been talking to myself, which has been happening more frequently nowadays.

_This is probably due to the lack of socializing as often as I’d like to with my friends. I should burn down my house again with Papyrus, I’ll have another extended sleep over with Alphys without her figuring out my feelings for her._

I lift the helmet off my head and take a deep breath of the cold, nippy air. Closing my eyes I take in the feeling of the cold here by the icy river before setting off again once more in search of any humans who may have fallen into the Underground. As I make my way through the town of Snowdin I decide to stop off at the skeleton brothers house.

*knock knock*

It takes longer than usual for the skeletons to answer the door but finally the deep voice of the smaller skeleton called Sans answers.

“who’s there?” Sans says in his usual lazy tone.

“Undyne.” I answer, mildly annoyed.

“undyne who?” He asks in reply, attempting, and failing, to keep the laughter out of his voice.

Before I can answer his stupid question his brother, Papyrus, shouts at him.

“SANS! UNDYNE WOULDN’T HAVE COME HERE TO PLAY YOUR JOKES! STOP MESSING AROUND AND OPEN THE DOOR!”

“don’t worry, bro, i’ll handle this.” Sans laughs in reply.

I face palm at the pun, having heard it a million times before, the door opens fully and I enter the warm house.

“SAAAANS! NHYEEE-“ Papyrus starts shouting at him but stops as soon as he hears the door shut behind me and sees me in their home.

“UNDYNE. IT IS WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU! WHY ARE YOU HERE?” Papyrus asks me in a rather nervous tone.

“yeah, something smells fishy.” Sans grins at me and starts laughing as I glare at him for such a petty joke.

“Stop with your jokes, Sans, or else I will spear you.” I say in a calm and controlled tone while hiding my annoyance.

“yo, papyrus, i think undyne wants some spearghetti!” Sans laughs as he runs up to his room before either of us have a chance to do anything.

Papyrus and I both facepalm and it takes a few moments before we have calmed down. As I open my eye I notice Papyrus seems to be acting rather out of the ordinary, not looking as orange as he usually does when Sans acts like this.

“Everything alright, Papyrus?” I ask cautiously.

“WHAA- YES OFCOURSE, UNDYNE! WHY WOULD ANYTHING BE WRONG! NOTHING IS WRONG WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS, DO NOT WORRY!” He babbles on and ends with a very stiff smile while some sweat drips from his skull.

“SO, WHY ARE YOU HERE, UNDYNE?” He asks, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well, I thought I would drop by and check up on you both. I am glad I did.”

“HOW SO? AS YOU CAN SEE, THERE IS NOTHING ABNORMAL HERE AND DEFINITELY NO HUMANS PRESENT.” He starts fidgeting with his gloves,

“Who said anything about humans, Pap?” I ask while crossing my arms and cocking my hips.

“N-NOBODY! JUST, YOU ALWAYS LOOK FOR HUMANS AND THERE AREN’T ANY HUMANS HERE! NYEHEHEhehe...” Papyrus laughs nervously and looks down.

“Pap, seriously, what is goi- WHAA!” Before I can even finish my question Papyrus is already guiding me back to the door.

“IT WAS LOVELY TO HAVE YOU VISIT US, BUT EVERYTHING IS FINE!”

I grab the door frame and close the door before I can be shoved outside.

“You are going to tell me what is going on this INSTANT, Papyrus! Lying to the captain of the royal guard will certainly not help in making sure you join us!” I shout, sounding commanding and angrier than I probably should have but Papyrus is hiding something.

He looks hurt, letting his gaze fall and fiddles with his gloves and then his scarf.

“W-well, Undyne... Sans found a human. B-but!”

As soon as Papyrus mentions a human all I can feel is rage as I shove him aside and start storming up the stairs towards Sans’ room, before I reach the top however, Papyrus has grabbed my arm. This forces me to look back at him and pay attention.

“But this human is different Undyne! She’s a friend!” He sounds desperate but I will not be swayed from capturing the seventh human.

“This is the last human we need to break the barrier which keeps us all from escaping the Underground! Do you want to throw that all awa!? Just because she is different and a friend to you!?” I shout, gritting my teeth after.

The tall skeleton looks conflicted and is struggling to make a choice, but as soon as his grip loosens from my arm I pull free and storm to Sans’ room and bang my fist on it. Probably hit a little too hard as there is now an indent in the wood of the door.

“Open up, Sans! You cannot hide a human from me!”

The smaller skeleton chuckles, it sounds like he is close to the door, a bump confirms that he is leaning against the door. This infuriates me further and causes me to conjure a blue glowing spear in my hand. Raising it above my head I ready myself to attack the door.

“UWAAAA-“ I start yelling my battle cry but it gets cut off as I get lifted off my feet by some kind of blue magic.

Sans has opened his door, I glare at him, his eye is glowing blue as well as his hand as he keeps me afloat above the floor and doesn’t let me down.

“sorry, undyne, but you cannot go snooping around our house without a warrant. heh. we may be friends but it’s kind of a rule, ya know.” He closes his eyes and drops me with a thud.

With my face still firmly planted against the ground I laugh and get up, still looking down at the floor. I know he is right and fighting him would be senseless if they weren’t actually harboring a human, but I still have my suspicions.

“Very well. I will get that warrant and then snoop about your house but that seems to be rather useless as you will simply move whatever you are hiding before I can get back.” I state with a huff, crossing my arms.

He simply shrugs while Papyrus still stands at the top of the staircase, watching the entire scene play out rather than butting in. Clearly he is unsure on who’s side he should be on as he may endanger his chance of ever joining the Royal Guard if he is to stand up to me. However, losing his brothers loyalty and trust is not an option either. He’s fidgeting and looking anywhere but at me when I look over at him, beads of sweat start appearing on his skull. He probably feels rather pressured at this point.

_Can’t say I blame him._

Rather than cause more drama I turn away and leave their house, raising my hand as a goodbye while I leave through their door. The door slams shut behind me with blue magic.

“I’ll find that human.”

As I head back into the tundra of this Underground area I spot some fresh foot or paw prints in the snow I do not recognize.

“Well well, what do we have here?” I grin, curiosity getting the better of me.

~Back in the skeleton house from Sans’s POV~

I breathe a sigh of relief as the door is closed with my magic.

_That was way too close._

“you alright, kid?”

There’s no sound from within my room so I push the door further open and flick on the light.

“kid?”

Still no reply from Frisk, panic is slowly growing within my soul. I grab the bunched up bed covers and yank them off the bed but she isn’t on the mattress either. I’m definitely filled with worry and ever growing panic now!

_i knew undyne left way too easily!! i’m such a fool!_

Rummaging through my entire room, the kid is still nowhere to be found and my room is getting more and more messy by the second.

“Uhm, Sans?” Papyrus asks tentatively.

“yeah, bro?” I answer without looking up as I open up every drawer and rummage through, the kid would be small enough to fit after all.

_or would she? ugh, i don’t remember._

“Are you looking for the human?” He asks just as carefully as before.

“ofcourse, bro. do you know where they are hiding?” I look up, slightly hope ebbing into my soul.

“Well they slipped out of your room while you and Undyne were distracted. They went into my room to hide.” Papyrus is fidgeting with his gloves.

I look at my bro with stars in my eyes, full of admiration for him because he helped the human despite having to turn against Undyne.

“you are so cool, bro, being able to not give away the human’s whereabouts like that. that was very clever of the kid too.” I continue looking at him with admiration before the creak of floor boards outside my room and behind Papyrus catches my attention.

“kid? that you?” I ask, getting back onto my feet.

Papyrus turns around and steps a little to the side so he isn’t blocking the entire doorway. The kid is standing there, looking a little frightened but otherwise unharmed.

“you alright there?” I step towards her.

Frisk nods and suddenly hugs me really tight. Clearly the human got more frightened than I thought from what just happened. Another thing that puzzles me is how big they are compared to what I can remember. Flashes of a small child walking with a stick as a weapon and a plaster on her cheek appear inside my mind but they are mixed up with a few other flashes of the same kid walking the exact same way just as big as this Frisk.

_multiple timelines i suppose._

Before things can get too awkward I hug her back.

_she’s so soft and smells nice..._

Closing my eyes I enjoy the sensation of simply holding her in my arms as she hugs me tightly, just as I am about to let go we both get lifted my Papyrus in a hug who was clearly feeling left out.

“NYEHEHEHE! WE WILL KEEP YOU SAFE, HUMAN!”

Papyrus puts us down and we let go of each other. I wink and smile broadly at Frisk.

“sure thing, kid, we’ll keep you safe.”

Frisk smiles and nods.

**Thank you, Papyrus and Sans. I really appreciate it.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter :) What do you guys think of Undyne so far? Do you guys think that this "new human" will be found? Who do those foot or paw prints belong to? Is it just a dead end track or is it something imporant? hmmmmm


	16. Friends or more?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A familiar face? Cliff "hanger"? A gift?

_ Asriel? Are you trying to find mother? _

__

"I'm not trying cause I will find her." I reply but speak softer as soon as I see a few monsters stare at me oddly.

A sudden pinch of pain behind my eyes makes me stop in my tracks and rub my eyes with my paws.

"Ow." I hiss under my breath.

_ Oops, sorry Asriel. It's a little cramped here. _

__

"What do you mean 'cramped'? My soul is pretty much nonexistent without you inside, Chara."

_ Since when did you get so adulty? _

I can practically feel Chara pouting and crossing her arms before moping in the bottom corner of my empty soul pocket. Sighing I continue making my way through the snow towards waterfall. As I enter I'm almost overwhelmed with the sight of the starlike stones shining up above, but only almost as I have seen the stars shining from my flower patch under the hole in The Ruins.

"I'd like to bring Frisk here." Smiling to myself as my heart skips a beat thinking of her sweet smile and sparkling blue eyes.

The smile soon turns into a frown as my memory of her face seems to clash with the face of another child, also going by the name of Frisk. This Frisk I remember has brown hair, red eyes and is a bit paler but...

"That's not MY Frisk. That was a Frisk from a different timeline."

Anger is building up as I try to force myself to remember the Frisk of this timeline. My anger fades to sadness as Chara starts laughing softly.

"Chara, what-"

A glowing blue spear shoots past me before I can finish my question. I spin around to face whoever has interrupted me and my potential enemy. Within the shadows I can see a dark, looming shape. About as tall as me in this adult form I feel most comfortable in currently. The figures head moves with a creak, there's a white light shining from it's left eye before blue magic lights up the shadows and forms into another spear held by this strange figure. I create red balls of fire within my claws, ready to fight if need be.

_ Asriel! Run, idiot! _

__

Chara's scream echoes through my head, without hesitation I turn tail and sprint down the corridor of Waterfall, knowing each turn and dead end by heart. My best friend and sister helping me along the way, telling me to go left or right in order to dodge spears witch shoot past me and disappear before hitting anything. I slide to a halt by a broken bridge and curse under my breath.

"Now what..."

Turning to face my attacker it seems I'm alone until the shape steps out from the shadows, holding a spear above their head, ready to strike. Having nowhere to run, I now lift my claws filled with red flames ready to defend myself. Just as the figure is about to strike the part of the bridge I'm standing on starts cracking, fearfully I look down at my paws where the wood has rotten and is eagerly creating bigger and bigger cracks. The look I give my attacker must have sparked something within them as the spear disappears and they take their helmet off.

"Prince Dreemurr?"

My eyes widen and start watering at hearing my title and family name directed at me specifically, spoken by such a familiar (yet more adult) voice. This is no enemy.

~Undyne POV~

I let my magic fade as I recognise the look on this white and fluffy monsters face. That face of fear has never left my memory as I have almost seen that crybaby's face every single day after meeting in Waterfall so many years back. Removing my helmet I take a second good look at him before carefully asking the question to quill my suspicions.

"Prince Dreemurr?"

The monster seems speechless and quite surprised by me using this name to address him.

"Guard Undyne?" He whispers after a few seconds, letting his own magic fade.

"I knew it'd be you. No other monster would have fled as fast as you, though I must admit that you have gotten slower." I laugh as I tease him, watching his face slowly turn red under his white fur with black stripes from his eyes.

"Oh, really?" He asks while crossing his arms, a small smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Yeah, really." I reply with my own smirk tugging at my lips.

"I think you might have gotten slower seeing as you tend to catch me over half the distance we have covered."

My eye under the eyepatch flashes white once.

"Oh no you didn't just say that."

Fear flashes across his face for a split second before he sticks his tongue out at me. With a war cry I tackle the Prince of the Underground. The part of the bridge he was standing on snaps and sends us crashing down over the edge and down into the darkness below.

~Frisk POV, back at the skeleton brothers home~

** I should be heading off now. **

****

"NYE? Already? But you only just got here!"

"yeah, kid, shouldn't you wait until undyne is a bit further away? you know, just to be safe?"

Hearing Sans' worry for my wellbeing fills my heart and soul with a great warmth, which confuses me slightly but rather than think about it I shake it off and walk towards the door.

** I need to continue so I can help Asriel. **

****

"What did the human say, Sans? I can't understand it that well!"

"the kid needs to leave cause she needs to help a friend."

"AH! BUT A FRIEND OF THE HUMAN IS A FRIEND OF MINE TOO! I WISH TO HELP!"

Laughing softly at his selflessness and eagerness to help, I shake my head and smile at him despite silently wanting the tall skeletons help with mine and Asriel quest.

"Alright, I understand human." He sighs, but suddenly he lifts me into a tight hug. "BUT! REMEMBER YOU CAN ALWAYS RETURN HERE! I'LL HAVE SPAGHETTI READY FOR YOU AND A CLEAN BED! YOUR FRIEND CAN COME TOO, CAN'T HE SANS?"

I finally get put down, smiling broadly as I rub my squeezed arms a bit before turning to the door where Sans is leaning against the door frame.

"whatever you want, bro, i don't really mind either way." He says nonchalantly but seems a little off somehow.

Shaking my head I hug him in farewell, secretly hoping he will follow me on the way with his shortcuts as usual.

"heh, see you around, kid." He says as he returns the hug, tilting his head away but I saw unmistakingly light blue cheek bones

** See you, Sans.  ** I sign after letting go of him.

I start on my quest again once I am outside the skeleton brothers home, the cold breeze sends shivers down my spine as it penetrates my thin clothing. My only source of proper warmth being the thick woolly socks within my snow/hiking boots along with the blue and purple jumper. Rather than turn back to borrow a jacket and jogging trousers from the skeletons, which Sans at least would definitely have in my size or 1 size over making it baggy but comfy.

_ Sigh, I'll just hurry to Waterfall. It's warm and humid there so a jacket and jogging trousers wouldn't be much use there and definitely not in Hotlands either. _

__

Just as I step out of Snowdin I see a blue flash out of the corner of my eye, instinctively I raise my arms up over my head and make myself a little smaller to protect myself. A moment passes before a cold skeletal hand touches my hand.

"kid? you alright?" The puntastic skeleton asks, sounding rather concerned.

Opening my eyes I see Sans standing before me with a worried/guilty expression on his face. Quickly realising what I must have made him think about I hug him in order to make him feel better. Sans was unprepared for my attack so we both end up toppling over into a pile of snow, both of us laughing loudly as we see each other covered in snow.

"heh, didn't know you fell for me, Frisk." Sans says with a cheeky smirk as he pats the snow off my jumper.

Smirking the same way he is, blushing slightly as I sign back **Looks like I'm not the only one who fell though.**

Sans' cheek bones turn bright blue, he turns his face away at the same time as pulling up his white hoodie to hide his blue face further. As I get up he coughs a few times.

"i brought you a wool poncho, thought you might be cold." He says almost too quietly for me to hear as he takes a folded, white and blue, knitted poncho out from within his jacket.

_ Should I...? _

 

I smile shyly to myself as I decide that I should. Leaning forward, showing my intentions are to accept the thoughtful gift from him, I hold the poncho with one hand but before Sans can move or do anything I pull his hood off and kiss the top of his skull as a thank you.

"uh..." Practically Sans' entire skull turns bright blue and his eye socket lights are glowing brightly as he looks up at me.

** Thank you, Sans.  **

****

Starting down the path again I pull the poncho over my head and flick my hair into place. The poncho is beautiful and looks to be hand knitted, a few blue zigzag lines knitted into braided formation cross over the front with a similar pattern all around but not being completely perfect. It's wool is soft and non-stinging making it comfortable to wear and comfortably warm as it is rather thick. Along the edges are a few tufts left for decoration.

_ I love it!  _ I think and smile to myself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not adding a chapter in a while but writers block is a b*tch, this chapter also needed to be planned with difficulty, room mate drama (moving out, yay!), a new boyfriend and new friends at school :) How has your life been between last update and this one? Should I continue this story despite it being a while since the previous chapter?


	17. Panic Attack

Sans POV

 

I continue watching the kid as she walks away, too stunned to react other than sit in the snow with cheek bones as blue as echo flowers. A smile creeps onto my face as I watch her slip the poncho over her head. It suits Frisk perfectly despite being a little too big around the shoulders, neck and a little too long, the tip of one pointed end reaching down to just below her knees and the cut up ends by her hips reaching to just above the middle of her thighs. It was a good idea of Papyrus to add in the blue knitted braids zig zagging around on the poncho itself as well as using a purple ribbon to attach a hood to the neckline of the poncho that he himself had made. The hood part had the same knitted braids zig zagging around but smaller and in orange/red instead of blue like the body of the poncho. A cold breeze makes the poncho flutter and makes Frisk pull up the hood over her head and slightly tighten the purple ribbon going through the knitting at her neck and around the edge of the hood.

 

  
_heh. glad you have some use for that poncho we made for you._ I think to myself as I notice a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

 

While watching her my eye socket lights wander down over her figure. She's breathtakingly beautiful, nothing like the kid I remember coming into the Underground in the first time line. My cheekbones heat up further as I realise Frisk has turned around to wave one more time before turning and disappearing from view. With a sigh I look down at the snow and rub the spot on my skull she had kissed with those soft lips of hers. The pink fluff of my slippers reminds me suddenly of the sock laying on the floor at home and that dinner is probably ready soon. Slowly I get up, still looking down the path, in the hopes of the mist clearing for a bit in order to catch a final glimpse of my Frisk. However, it doesn't happen so I turn around and start walking home along the snowy path.

 

_i'll come find you tomorrow morning, kiddo._

 

As I walk I find myself thinking about the kids reassuring and happy smile, her sparkling eyes as she saw the "sky" of the Underground in Waterfall for the first time, her wonder as she heard her words in her own voice get repeated by the Echo flower, her flushed cheeks as we had our first "date" in each time line, her voice filled with curiosity as she asks about the Underground and each area as well as the monsters history. My mind wanders to a timeline where Frisk wasn't herself, where she had ended up killing all monsters and destroying the Underground community. I come to a halt outside the house and quickly shake my head to clear it.

 

"frisk is truly my frisk in this timeline, i won't lose her."

 

Suddenly the door is flung open and I take a step backwards being startled, my left eye glowing blue. My eye sockets return to their regular light and with a sigh I accept the pick up hug I receive from my brother a moment later.

 

"BROTHER! I AM GLAD YOU ARE HOME! DID THE HUMAN LIKE THE PRESENT?"

 

Papyrus shouts excitedly as he carries me into the house and closes the door behind us. I relax in his arms, enjoying being carried by my younger brother.

 

"yeah, bro, she loved the present so much that she is using it **present** ly." I hide my huge smirk behind my hand as I watch for his reaction.

 

"I'M GLAD SHE- Wait... was that... WAS THAT A PUN!?"

 

His face turns orange/red as he realises I had made a joke, he is so annoyed that he drops me on the couch and stomps his foot and rants at me.

 

"SANS! YOU ARE UNBELIEVABLE! I THOUGHT WE WOULD HAVE A NICE PUN-LESS EVENING BUT NO! YOU HAD TO MAKE A JOKE LIKE THAT! OH MY GOD! I HATE PUNS!"

 

I burst out laughing as tears roll down my blue cheekbones.

 

"sorry, bro, i couldn't resist but i'll keep try to keep my puns on an all time low when i am in your **presents**."

 

"SANS!" Papyrus shouts at my pun again.

 

"sorry, sorry, sorry." I repeat as I continue laughing so hard I can hardly breath.

 

Papyrus huffs and spins on his heel and stomps into the kitchen to continue with his spaghetti.

 

"AND PICK UP YOUR SOCK!" He shouts angrily before promptly deciding to ignore me until dinner is ready.

 

Finally calming down but still chuckling softly as I look over at the sock, shrug and promptly lay down on the couch properly. Slowly my smile fades a bit as I realise the house feels rather empty, looking down at my chest I realise it is because Frisk isn't here right now. I had grown accustomed to her being here constantly but now that she suddenly left I really feel her absence in the house.

 

"SANS! DINNER! WAKE UP!" Papyrus suddenly shouts.

 

"huh? oh, yeah, coming bro." Rubbing my eye sockets and yawning as I sit up.

 

_huh, must have dozed off._

 

"kid, wake u-" I start to mumble softly to the nonexistent Frisk as my hand reaches to where her head would have slipped down into my lap as I sit up and groan softly as I feel nothing there and a hollowness in my soul like a sharp ache after stubbing your toe against the coffee table leg.

 

With a sigh I get up and slowly shuffle my way into the kitchen, Papyrus is setting the table, his face fully concentrated on the task at hand, making sure that everything is set up correctly. The knife on the right side while the fork is on the left, the small and big spoon above the plate, the smaller above the bigger one, the glass on the right hand side and the napkin folded into a triangle on the plate. Papyrus does everything correctly.

 

"nice job, bro, it looks correct to me." I compliment him as I sit down in my seat.

 

"NYE! THANKS BROTHER! I TRY MY BEST!" He looks overjoyed as he turns to get the food.

 

To keep to the proper "theme" of this particular dinner I place the napkin in my lap as Papyrus scoops over the spaghetti and meat/tomato sauce onto my plate. He does the same for himself before setting down the stuff I don't know the name off on the table on heat proof mats.

 

"BON APATIT, BROTHER!"

 

"don't you mean **bone** apatite, bro?" I say, while winking.

 

"Brother...." Papyrus mumbles while face palming "that was the worst joke yet..."

 

Without another word we both start eating the spaghetti which tastes rather good this time round.

 

~After dinner and after Papyrus is sleeping~

 

"ah, finally, now then." I mumble as I step out of Papyrus' room and close the door behind me "let's see how far the kid has gotten."

 

Tiptoeing downstairs to avoid waking Papyrus and throwing on my hoodie jacket, I hurry outside as quietly as I can before getting ready to teleport to Waterfall to find Frisk.

 

My left eye lights up as my right eye dims, the light turns blue and in a flash of blue and a soft 'ping' sound I disappear from in front of the house and appear at my station in Waterfall.

 

"now then, let's see if i can find that kid."

 

Sleepy grumbling startles me and causes me to fall off the stool and back into a pile of plants behind the station. In a blue flash I am standing upright again, left hand held out in front of me as my eye glows with blue magic. The darkness under the small table of the station gets lit slightly by the blue light coming off my left hand, showing a small bundle wrapped in something white and knitted. Blue eyes stare out at me from within the knitted clothing, pupils large with fear, glistening tears threatening to escape the corners of their eyes. Blue eyes flash to red for a split second making my blue magic glow more powerfully, lighting up the entire section of the cave and giving me a good look at the bundle. After just a moment I recognise the knitted clothing as the poncho my brother and I had made for Frisk, a moment later I realise that this bundle is Frisk but it takes me another moment to realise that I have frightened her. Quickly I force my magic to fade despite my heart still racing from the potential danger my head thinks I am in.

 

"kid? it's just me." I get down on my knees beside her.

 

Reaching out for her with my left hand, she flinches away from my touch and makes a soft squeak/whimpering sound like that of a dog when it's tail is stepped on. Her reaction is like a spear through the soul but I don't give up so I gently grab hold of her arms and pull her into my lap, wrapping my arms around her and humming the soft tune of the music by the statue in waterfall. She continues sniffling, whimpering and trembling for a while in my arms before calming down.

 

"ssssh, it's ok kiddo. don't you worry, i won't let anything or anyone harm you." I whisper reassuringly, taking my time to calm her down from the initial panic attack I had caused.

 

"you listening, frisk? you're ok, i'm here, i'm here, shhh."

 

Slowly the trembling ceases fully but the sniffling continues for a bit longer so I continue whispering reassuring words to her until the sniffling stops too.

 

"hey" I whisper calmly "look at me, please." Gently I place a hand on her cheek and guide her to look at me.

 

Her eyes are slightly puffy from crying with shining, wet tear tracks coming from her eyes and going down her cheeks. Gently I wipe the tears away from her cheeks and eyes with my fingers. Suddenly she buries her face in my chest and hugs me tight, her arms under my hoodie jacket and clutching at my t-shirt. Softly I stroke the back of her head and her back under the poncho while hushing her new sobs and sniffles of relief that she is safe.

 

"frisk?" The sobbing and sniffling stills "look at me."

 

 

Slowly she shifts onto her knees and pulls back a bit and places her hands on my chest instead and clutching my t-shirt there. Placing my hand on her cheek again I look her in the eyes but she looks away, ashamed of her reaction.

 

"no, look me in the eye sockets." She still doesn't look me in the eye "please?" Finally she focuses on the white lights in my eyes.

 

"you're ok, ok? i'm here, i'm here for you, and i'll keep you safe, ok?"

 

She nods but that's not enough for me.

 

"say it."

 

Shuffling a bit further back and removing her hands from my chest, she starts signing but I grab them and whisper "no." She looks confused "say it."

 

Doubtfully she looks down before looking back up at me and opening her mouth to speak.

 

"I'm okay, you're here, you're here for me and you'll keep me safe." She whispers in the sweetest voice I have ever heard her speak in all the timelines, then she nods and hugs me the same way as before and nuzzles my chest. Carefully I "kiss" the top of her head and close my eyes. Simply enjoying this moment with her.

**Author's Note:**

> Will be attempting to update with a least one chapter once a month for now.  
> Thank you for taking an interest in my fanfic, hope you enjoy!


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